Be aware in case any of these links don't respond, most will be available through the Wayback Machine, simply cut and paste the link to recall the 'lost' information.

03/31/10 -
It's Time To Split Up NSA Between Spooks and Geeks
"Noah Shachtman writes in Wired that most of us know the National Security Agency as the supersecret spook shop that allegedly slurped up our email and phone calls after the September 11 attacks, but not so many know that the NSA is actually home to two different agencies under one roof: the signals-intelligence directorate, who can tap into any electronic communication, and the information-assurance directorate, the cybersecurity nerds who make sure our government's computers and telecommunications systems are hacker- and eavesdropper-free. 'The problem is, their goals are often in opposition,' writes Shachtman. 'One team wants to exploit software holes; the other wants to repair them.' Users want to know that Google is safeguarding their data and privacy. The trouble is that when Google calls the NSA, everyone watching sees it as a package deal. Google wants geeks, but it runs the risk of getting spies, too."
- Full Article Source

03/31/10 -
Internet Kill Switch
Today, the Senate Commerce Committee endorsed the Cybersecurity Act of 2010, written by Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe. When the first version was introduced last year, critics in the corporate and civil libertarian sectors essentially put their boots down on a provision that would seem to codify the president's authority to shut down the Internet in cases of national emergencies. The debate over the "kill switch" provision was a powerful reminder to the Senate that the reality of cyber law did not comport with the public's understanding of the cyber threat, and that it had to tread very carefully in political waters were the surf was either extremely choppy or as still as a stone.
- Full Article Source

03/31/10 -
NASA Summoned to Fix Prius Problems
"If you want to solve a major engineering mystery, why not bring in some of the world's best engineers? The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today said it was doing just that by bringing in NASA engineers with expertise in areas such as computer controlled electronic systems, electromagnetic interference and software integrity to help tackle the issue of unintended vehicle acceleration in Toyotas. The NHTSA review of the electronic throttle control systems in Toyotas is to be completed by late summer."
- Full Article Source

03/31/10 -
Magnetism Can Sway Man's Moral Compass
"Discovery News reports that scientists have identified a region of the brain which appears to control morality and discovered that a powerful magnetic field can scramble the moral center of the brain, impairing volunteers' notion of right and wrong. 'You think of morality as being a really high-level behavior,' says Liane Young, a scientist at MIT and co-author of the article. 'To be able to apply (a magnetic field) to a specific brain region and change people's moral judgments is really astonishing.' Young and her colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging to locate an area of the brain just above and behind the right ear known as the right temporo-parietal junction (RTPJ), which other studies had previously related to moral judgments. Volunteers were exposed to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for 25 minutes before reading stories involving morally questionable characters, and being asked to judge their actions. The researchers found that when the RTPJ was disrupted volunteers were more likely to judge actions solely on the basis of whether they caused harm — not whether they were morally wrong in themselves. The scientists didn't permanently remove the subjects' moral sensibilities and on the scientists' seven point scale, the difference was about one point, averaging out to about a 15 percent change, 'but it's still striking to see such a change in such high level behavior as moral decision-making.' Young points out that the study was correlation; their work only links the RTJP, morality and magnetic fields, but doesn't definitively prove that one causes another."
- Full Article Source

03/31/10 -
James Lovelock Suggests Suspending Democracy To Save the World
"Climate scientist James Lovelock claims it may be necessary to put democracy on hold to prevent a global climate catastrophe. He goes on to say that the best remedies may be adaptation techniques such as building sea defenses."
- Full Article Source

03/31/10 -
Gonorrhea As the Next Superbug
"Reuters is reporting that Gonorrhea risks becoming a superbug: 'The sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea risks becoming a drug-resistant "superbug" if doctors do not devise new ways of treating it, a leading sexual health expert said.'"
- Full Article Source

03/31/10 -
MIT Finds 'Grand Unified Theory of AI'
"What's brilliant about this (approach) is that it allows you to build a cognitive model in a fantastically much more straightforward and transparent way than you could do before," says Nick Chater, a professor of cognitive and decision sciences at University College London. "You can imagine all the things that a human knows, and trying to list those would just be an endless task, and it might even be an infinite task. But the magic trick is saying, 'No, no, just tell me a few things,' and then the brain — or in this case the Church system, hopefully somewhat analogous to the way the mind does it — can churn out, using its probabilistic calculation, all the consequences and inferences. And also, when you give the system new information, it can figure out the consequences of that."
- Full Article Source

03/30/10 -
We the People
I like the message but can do without the crescendo of music and the strident tone towards the end. They should learn, often less is more. The message however, is right on target. The points listed as to how the current administration is dismantling the USA, are also on target in my opinion (JWD) Thanks to Infolink for the headsup on this video.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Magnetic monopole experiment at CERN could rewrite laws of physics
"Our conventional understanding of magnets tells us they have a north pole and a south pole," said Pinfold. "A magnetic monopole has only one pole and that will change our understanding and the potential of electromagnetism," the force that binds particles of matter together. "Electromagnet force is the reason that, when I sit down on a chair, I don't fall through it." "Monopoles could make materials strong enough to withstand a nuclear explosion and could also enable magnetic levitation." Conventional understanding of magnets is that they must have north and south poles. In 1930 it was shown that a sub atomic particle with just a single magnetic pole could exist. Several modern theories of physics are built on the theoretical existence of magnetic monopoles. Last year, researchers in France and Germany reported the observation of certain states of spin ice, a kind of crystalline material with essentially the same atomic arrangements as water ice that would create monopole-like particles. But Pinfold warns, "these 'quasi-monopoles' should not be confused with the real thing being sought by the U of A led collaboration at CERN."
- Full Article Source

You need Flash installed to watch this ideo

An introduction to the MoEDAL detector.

03/29/10 -
Cooling the Planet With a Bubble Bath
"A Harvard University physicist has come up with a new way to cool parts of the planet: pump vast swarms of tiny bubbles into the sea to increase its reflectivity and lower water temperatures. 'Since water covers most of the earth, don't dim the sun,' says the scientist, Russell Seitz, speaking from an international meeting on geoengineering research. 'Brighten the water.' From ScienceNOW: 'Computer simulations show that tiny bubbles could have a profound cooling effect. Using a model that simulates how light, water, and air interact, Seitz found that microbubbles could double the reflectivity of water at a concentration of only one part per million by volume. When Seitz plugged that data into a climate model, he found that the microbubble strategy could cool the planet by up to 3C. He has submitted a paper on the concept he calls “Bright Water" to the journal Climatic Change.'"
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Liu Chan Amazing Magic
First coins, then his hand through the table, amazing! (Thanks to Bert Pool for the headsup! - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Many Baby Boomers will be Forced to Work Long Into Their Retirement
In the past 5 years, boomers ages 46 to 54 have seen their average net worth drop 45%. The recession is reshuffling retirement plans for baby boomers — a demographic tsunami, accustomed to setting the agenda, that finds itself scrambling as the oldest boomers turn 64. Only 53 percent of workers 55 and older have even tried to calculate how much they need for retirement, according to a 2010 survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, and 29 percent report less than $10,000 in savings and investments. It’s little wonder that just 13 percent said they were confident they had enough to live comfortably in retirement.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Companies say health care costs hard to swallow
In the first two days after the law was signed, three major companies — Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Valero Energy — said they expect to take a total hit of $265 million to account for smaller tax deductions in the future. With more than 3,500 companies now getting the tax break as an incentive to keep providing coverage, others are almost certain to announce similar cost increases in the weeks ahead as they sort out the impact of the change. Figuring out what it will mean for retirees will take longer, but analysts said as many as 2 million could lose the prescription drug coverage provided by their former employers, leaving them to enroll in Medicare's program. Nationwide, companies would take a $14 billion hit on their financial statements if all of the roughly 3,500 companies receiving the subsidies continued to do so, according to a study by Towers Watson, a human resources consulting firm. That financial hit will be a one-time cost as companies report a new cost estimate for the benefits over the life spans of all retirees. Deere and Caterpillar were among a group of 10 companies that sent a letter to congressional leaders in December warning of the cost increases. The others were Boeing Co., Con-Way Inc., Exelon Corp., Navistar Inc., Verizon, Xerox Corp., Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. and MetLife Inc. Most of the other companies that signed the letter said Thursday that it was too soon to estimate their costs. A number of other major U.S. companies also said they did not know how much the tax change would cost them. Some companies might wait until they release their earnings reports next quarter to address the costs so they have time to review the entire law. The companies that signed the December letter warned that changing the way retiree drug benefits are subsidized would have a broad impact on the economy, and there are already indications that the effects will trickle down to individuals.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
NREL's New Robots builds and tests Solar Cells
The robot working with silicon can build a semi-conductor on a six-inch-square plate of glass, plastic or flexible metal in about 35 minutes. It pivots and dishes like a point guard, sifts like a master chef, analyzes like a forensics expert and does it all while maintaining a vacuum seal on the entire process. Simultaneously, it can analyze glitches and measure light absorption, while preparing the next half-dozen plates. "It used to require us to go to, let's see, one … two … three … four … five labs to do the same thing," NREL scientist Ingrid Repins said. Solar companies will be able to hook their own tools to the central robot and discover how their newest formulas compare. A vacuum transport tool can take the sample plates to the different, yet compatible, bays to see how an unusual process might bolster the power of a cell. Solar companies know how to make solar cells in a dozen different ways — as shingles, as windows, as fanny packs, as attachments to space vehicles — but they constantly are searching for ways to lower costs and gain efficiency. "The whole goal is dollars per watt," Repins said.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Do Car Safety Problems Come From Outer Space?
"As electronic devices are made to perform more and more functions on smaller circuit chips, the systems become more sensitive and vulnerable to corruption from single event upsets and this is especially true of Toyota who has led the auto industry in its widespread inclusion of electronic controls in the manufacture of their various car models. 'These circuit families store not just data, but their basic function electrically,' says Lloyd W. Massengill, director of engineering at the Vanderbilt Institute for Space and Defense Electronics at Vanderbilt University. 'In the unfortunate event of a particle flipping just the right bit, a circuit configured to carry out a benign action may be reprogrammed to carry out some unintended action.' Denise Chow writes in Live Science that some scientists are pointing to cosmic ray radiation as a plausible mechanism behind the sudden, unexplained acceleration reported to have occurred with the late model Toyotas."
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Fast Food Makes Us Impatient
Can't wait an extra 30 seconds for your computer to boot up or an e-mail to get a response? Fast food could be partly to blame, a new study suggests. "Fast food represents a culture of time efficiency and instant gratification," said study researcher Chen-Bo Zhong of the University of Toronto, Rotman School of Management. "The problem is that the goal of saving time gets activated upon exposure to fast food regardless of whether time is a relevant factor in the context." "Fast food is one of many technologies that allow us to save time,"said study researcher Sanford DeVoe. "But the ironic thing is that by constantly reminding us of time efficiency, these technologies can lead us to feel much more impatience." The result, DeVoe said is that leisure activities meant to be relaxing can become spoiled by impatience. The researchers point out that it's impossible to know whether fast food in part caused the value for time efficiency in our culture or is merely a consequence of it. But they say the findings do suggest exposure to fast food reinforces an emphasis on impatience and instant gratification.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Automated rain barrel watering system
[Dmritard96] built this automated watering system to keep his garden growing while he’s out-of-town. It uses rain barrels, which capture and store rainwater, as a source. These barrels provide very low water pressure so he’s added a battery-powered pump along with a solar array for recharging. Don’t worry, if the rain barrels run dry there’s a float sensor that will switch the system over to city water and stave off those wilted leaves. / One commenter notes; "city owns any rain” - It’s the state, not the city, and it’s only in two backwater redneck hick-ass states: Colorado and Utah. Personal use rain barrels are legal in Washington state, it’s only larger ’systems’ of collecting barrels and huge resevoirs that need special permission. With the sheer amount of rain in WA I’m surprised they even bothered. You can fix pressure issues without a pump by elevating the barrel and using a larger diameter feed tube.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Short Day Stimulates Workers (Feb, 1932)
YOUNG girls working in factories will not work harder for more money but will do so to get off earlier in the afternoon, it is reported from experiments conducted by British scientists. A plan was tried of paying a fixed daily wage but allowing each girl to go home when she had threaded 100 dozen needles. The speed of work increased immediately, the average girl being finished and ready to go home by 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Radford 12-year-old finalist in rubber band invention competition
Rubber bands can be used for a variety of purposes, but a 12-year-old boy from Radford hopes they’ll soon be used to save lives. Benjamin Dabney was recently named a finalist in the 2010 Rubber Band Contest for Young Inventors. Participants were asked to create an invention with rubber bands as a main component. Dabney’s invention uses them to hold together a quick-set malaria tent that can be used in African countries.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Water Surface Tension Creates New Adhesive Device
A palm-sized invention from Cornell Univ. could someday allow humans to walk on walls, avoid misplacing their shoes or gloves by sticking them to a surface, or leave reminders on Post-ItNote-like paper that can bear loads. The switchable electronically controlled capillary adhesion device (SECAD), which relies on water surface tension to create an adhesive bond, consists of a flat plate patterned with micron-sized holes, a bottom plate that holds a liquid reservoir, and a porous layer in the middle. An electric field applied by a common 9- V battery causes water to move through the device and forces droplets to squeeze through the top layer. The surface tension of the exposed droplets makes the device grip another surface, similar to the way two wet glass slides stick together. "In our everyday experience, these forces are relatively weak," says Paul Steen, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, who invented the device with former postdoctoral associate Michael Vogel. "But if you make a lot of them and can control them, you can get strong adhesion forces." Steen says the invention was inspired by a beetle native to Florida that can adhere to a leaf with a force 1 00 times its own weight, yet also instantly unstick itself. The research builds on previously published work that demonstrated the efficacy of electro- osmotic pumping between surface-tension-held interfaces. The researchers made a prototype with about 1,000 300-[mu]m holes that can hold about 30 g, which is equivalent to more than 70 paper clips. They found that as they scaled down the holes and packed more of them onto the device, the adhesion got stronger. They estimate that a 1 -in.2 device with millions of 1 -[mu]m holes could hold more than 15 lb. To turn the adhesion oft", the electric field is simply reversed, and the water is pulled back through the pores, breaking the bonds created between the device and the other surface by the individual droplets.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
The first Junctionless Transistor
A team of scientists at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland has created what they claim is the world's first junctionless transistor. The invention represents a breakthrough in transistors and nanoelectronics, and has the potential to revolutionize microchip manufacturing. Current transistors are based on junctions, which are formed by placing two pieces of silicon with different polarities side-by-side. Controlling the junction allows the current in the device to be switched on and off. Fitting more transistors on a chip requires more precise fabrication methods, which greatly increases the cost of the chip. Tyndall’s transistor architecture eliminates the junctions and instead uses a control gate around a silicon nanowire to carry the current. The current flow is controlled by the control gate electrically “squeezing” the nanowire using an easy-to-fabricate ring structure. The Tyndall researchers were able to create silicon nanowire only a few dozen atoms in diameter using electron-beam writing techniques. Colinge and his researchers say the architecture is compatible with current CMOS manufacturing processes, and expect that their design will prove particularly applicable in the manufacturing of transistors at the 10-nanometer scale. The team also believes that their junctionless devices have the potential to operate at faster and use less energy than the conventional transistors used in today's microprocessors.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Solution to a thirsty world: sea water without the salt
In the coastal town of Al Khaluf, Oman’s minister for water turned on a desalination plant that will provide the area with 100 cubic metres of fresh, clean water every day — enough for 80,000 people. The plant was sold by Modern Water, a British company that claims places such as Oman will become increasingly reliant on desalination — taking seawater and making it drinkable — as the world’s water resources are depleted. “The world’s population tripled in the 20th century while water consumption grew sixfold. Depleted water resources have implications for global security, health and life expectancy,” said Neil McDougall, Modern Water’s chief executive. “The earth’s surface is made up of 70% water. However, 97.5% of that is salt water, so we need to work out how to make it drinkable,” he said. With 70% of the world’s population living within 50km of the sea, desalination could provide the solution. Modern Water, based in Guildford, Surrey, claims its technique differs from most desalination procedures. They rely on high pressure, needing huge amounts of electricity, to push salt water through an enormous filter. The company’s patented “manipulated osmosis” technology uses a chemical reaction to separate the salt from the water — a process that uses far less energy. “It reduces energy consumption by as much as 30%,” said McDougall.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Beijing erects giant Deodorant sprays at rubbish dumps
Beijing is putting up 100 giant deodorant sprays which can jet perfume over rubbish dumps in order to reduce their acrid smell. Continued economic growth in China means increasing pressure on landfill sites. Pressure also comes from China's growing middle class which increasingly complains about government decisions, just like the middle-class nimbies in the rest of the world. The result in Beijing is a city which produces more rubbish everyday than it can bury, burn or recycle. Which results in some smelly dumps. Government plans for incinerators have been hit by well-organised protests from nearby residents. They're essentially giant fans coupled to high-pressure hoses which create a fog of tiny water droplets. With the addition of perfume, these help to remove existing odours and cover up what the spray does not remove. Apart from improving smells, the fans can also be used to cut dust on building sites or cooling big venues.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Nationwide Homebuilder Adds Electric Car Prewiring as Option
KB Home, one of the largest homebuilders in the U.S., has announced that they will be providing the option to homebuyers to pre-wire their new construction homes so that they are ready for the high voltage, high amperage electrical lines required to charge electric cars quickly and properly. While it’s certainly no complicated feat to add a pre-wired electric car charging circuit into a home (what, 240V/80A as recommended by SAE?), it does mark a major shift in the marketing strategies of homebuilders throughout this country. As we enter what is sure to be period of time we will all look back at as the most important evolution of personal mobility since the invention of the automobile, people who are planning ahead will be smart to include such circuits in their homes from the beginning.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Self-sustaining blimps could be our future
It would appear that this concept high-altitude reconnaissance and surveillance platform known as ISIS (Integrated Sensor Is the Structure), could herald in that age. Yes, this blimp is designed for combat zones, or at least hovering safely over them (about six miles over it). It is completely self-sustaining, because it can harvest solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. This is then used to power the fuel cells, and I am assuming that the water is drawn from the atmosphere. How else could it be self sustaining? Oh hey, did I mention that it is fully automated? Apparently, it can go anywhere within 10 days. So, I don’t know about you, but I want to see a world where these self-sustainable airships populate the sky like giant cities. Hey, why not? Believe it or not, I have heard that the first one of these blimps is expected to take flight in 2014.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
To reshape the world, the US must first reform itself
The biggest problem for American foreign policy today is not called Obama, or Bush, or China; it is called Congress. Whether you look at trade, climate change, China or Iran, it is the US Congress where policy becomes entangled, distorted and stymied. If the United States really wants to meet the hopes of a world in which its own relative power is undoubtedly diminished, it should introduce four-year terms for members of the House of Representatives, reform political finance and curb the lobbyists who enjoy "power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages". Effective foreign policy begins at home.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Do garbage disposals help gum up Seattle sewers?
A convenience in nearly half of U.S. households, the garbage disposal churns food scraps into tiny particles that slip easily down the drain. But some wastewater officials say garbage disposals encourage people to flush down fatty foods that shouldn't go in the drain because they clog up the sewer system, causing overflows. As part of an effort to keep the pipes unclogged, the city's sewer stewards are urging people to compost or recycle food scraps instead. "It's what they're putting down garbage disposals. That's where the real problem is," said Julie Howell, Pollution Prevention Program Coordinator with Seattle Public Utilities."If they have disposals, they tend to be indiscriminate about what goes down it." If anything, some defenders argue, disposals help the environment by diverting food scraps from trash bins and landfills to wastewater treatment plants, where they can be converted for energy or fertilizer. That's important because food scraps are 10 to 20 percent of household waste, they say. Last month, seattlepi.com reported on the coronary-like conditions in many of the city's sewer pipes caused by fats, oils and greases, or what utility workers call "FOG." It causes about 30 percent of the city's wastewater overflows and requires routine maintenance on problem spots. SPU estimates about 544,000 gallons of grease get into the sewers every month, enough to fill seven large swimming pools. The utility is studying the causes and taking steps to reduce it by working with restaurants around the greasiest sewer lines and educating residents not to dump grease down the drain. Most of the grease is a byproduct of dishwashing from restaurants, but about 40 percent is traced back to residential neighborhoods, city officials say. Howell said people with garbage disposers tend to toss in meat scraps or poultry bones, and are more apt to scrape fatty leftovers into the drain because they think a garbage disposal will easily render the remnants safe for the sewer pipes. But there are some who question whether you can blame an appliance for the bad habits of people who scrape the most problematic subtances -- gravy, creams, and sauces -- into the drain.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
New material traps radioactive waste like a Venus flytrap
The newly discovered material has the potential to speed up the cleaning of power plants and contaminated sites, potentially making nuclear energy a safer option for the environment. Before the invention of this material, sorting out deadly isotopes from harmless ions in waste was an arduous and inefficient process. "The name of the game in cleaning up nuclear waste is to concentrate the dangerous isotopes as efficiently as possible," said Mercouri Kanatzidis, one of the scientists who crafted the new technology. "That's where this new material does its job." The new material works because its crystalline structure is specially designed to bond in a different way with cesium than with sodium, trapping the former but releasing the latter. Since cesium ions don't bond as well as sodium ions bond with water molecules, only the sodium ions manage to pull through the material when it is dipped in a solution to prompt ion exchange. Cesium, on the other hand, binds to sulfur atoms embedded in the rings of the material's framework, causing a hole to seal shut around it. "As far as we know, this Venus-flytrap process is unique," Kanatzidis said. "It also works over a large range of acidities — an essential property for clean-up at different sites around the world, where pH can range considerably."
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Flat Pack Air tank invention for Firefighters
It’s a nightmare scenario for firefighters everywhere. A ceiling collapses, bringing with it a bird’s nest of telephone wires, fiber optic cables and power cords. A firefighter tries to escape, but the round fiberglass air tank that sits 8 inches off his back – the only thing allowing him to breathe in a burning building filled with noxious smoke and gases – becomes tangled, trapping him inside. Or a rescuer tries to crawl through a window or a hole in a wall, only to be hung up and hampered by the same heavy, unwieldy round fiberglass cylinder that carries the life-sustaining supply of breathable air. Sanders’ new design strings five long, thin tubes together into an array of air tanks. Each tube has a braided connector in the middle that allows it to flex as a firefighter’s back bends. The tubes are made of heavy-duty strands of woven synthetic material that are much less likely to fragment and explode than traditional tanks, Sanders said. A traditional cylinder air tank and pack weighs about 26 pounds and sits 8 inches off a firefighter’s back. Sanders’ FlatPack is about 14 pounds and hangs 2 1/2 inches off the wearer’s back. Both hold enough air for 45 minutes. The weight difference is critical for firefighters. The heavier an air tank and breathing apparatus is, the more energy firefighters have to exert. Reducing the load reduces fatigue and improves mobility, Hostler said. But the air pack’s greatest virtue, the veteran firefighter said, is its ability to let rescue crews fit more easily through tight spaces. Hostler has run through the Fort Wayne Fire Department’s confidence course – a maze meant to test firefighters’ response to stress and put them through a number of obstacles that they’re likely to encounter while battling house fires – several times with both Sanders’ air tanks and a traditional cylinder air pack. He quickly learned that if he can fit his shoulders through an opening, he can likely crawl through it with his pack on. And the chance of it getting snagged, hung up or caught is much lower than with a traditional air tank, he said.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Energy Star Program Certifies 15 Out of 20 Bogus Products
"A Gasoline-Powered Alarm Clock was among 15 bogus products granted the coveted Energy Star seal of approval by the US Environmental Protection Agency during a secret evaluation conducted by the Government Accountability Office. In addition, four fictional manufacturers run by fake people and marketed with crummy websites — Cool Rapport (HVAC equipment), Futurizon Solar Innovations (lighting), Spartan Digital Electronics, and Tropical Thunder Appliances — were granted Energy Star partnerships. The root of the problem: Manufacturers need only submit photos and not actual examples of their products, and they submit their own efficiency ratings, which are not independently verified by the EPA."
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Super Steam lights Match
Check out this and other cool science experiments at http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments/ We usually think of water as a substance used to put out fires... but what happens when water turns to steam and that steam gets superheated? Watch in amazement as the steam created in the experiment is used to create - not extinguish - fire!
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Photocopier Hard Drive holds Secrets
Your office's high-end photocopier probably has a hard-drive used to store copies of documents that are scanned from the glass. Harvesting scanned documents from discarded office copiers (often returned at the end of a lease) yields a treasure-trove of fascinating corporate secrets. Of the dozens of multi-purpose copiers Beitner has cleaned out in the past two years, he has seen hundreds of scanned documents that would be considered confidential. As a personal policy, he never reads them, but...
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Oyster finds the Real Picture
Oyster.com shows you a side-by-side comparison of the photos that popular hotels take of their properties and the unedited reality. A Washington, D.C. hotel photo that makes it appear as though the U.S. Capitol Building is only steps away—in fact, it’s almost a mile away. A seemingly romantic beach is actually in the center of an active construction zone. A male model emerges with a surfboard from what appears to be an expansive wave pool. It’s no bigger than a hot tub. A Caribbean chain offers “king beds” that are really two double beds shoved together. Oyster.com has hotel reviews for 14 destinations in the U.S. and Caribbean and over 200,000 undoctored photos. You choose the price range, ratings, and amenties you want and they give you “the bottom line” summary plus links to a review full of pros and cons. A New York hotel we chose had 161 photos, info about what to do nearby, and gossip about those who’s stayed there, such as Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams and Vladimir Horowitz. Tripadvisor.com has lots more destinations, but if yours is on Oyster.com’s list, it will give you the true picture.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
Papaya: Natural Cure Against Cancer
Dr. Dang’s research studied the application of the papaya plant for cures in patients suffering from cancer among indigenous communities in Vietnam and Australia. He then developed four strengths of extract from the papaya leaf, which when applied clinically, slowed the growth of cancerous cells in ten different types of cancer, namely those affecting the cervix, the breast, the liver, the lungs and the pancreas. The effects were visible within 24 hours. While the research project concentrates on the application of the papaya leaf on cancerous cases in Asia, indigenous populations in Brazil have been using the papaya leaf for thousands of years in infusions to treat ailments of the liver, including hepatitis A. The research conducted by Dr. Dang was made using dried papaya leaves. He proved that papaya leaf extract increases the level of signalling molecules which help to regulate the immune system, attacking the cancerous cells. By boosting the Th1-type cytokines, the immune system responds to invaders while not producing toxic effects on healthy cells.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
ISS To Get Man Cave
"There might be a new favorite hang-out for astronauts aboard the International Space Station later this year. The Leonardo Multi Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) will become a permanent module on the station, and will be brought up on the STS-133 mission, scheduled for September 2010. The new module might provide a haven for astronauts to get away from it all. '"The thought is, the PMM might become sort of a 'man cave,'" said Mike Kinslow, the Boeing payload manager at the Kennedy Space Center. "It won't have all the background noise of fans, computers and other equipment running like in the laboratories, so it will be a quieter atmosphere that might appeal to the astronauts during their off-duty hours."' Plus, NASA's Robonaut 2, or R2 will be brought up on the same flight. Any chance R2 could be programmed to serve drinks or bring food into the man cave?"
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
The Economics of Perfect Software
"This article takes the interesting perspective that leaving bugs in software is good — little ones, at least. This quote is particularly insightful: 'How do you know whether a bug is big or little? Think about who's going to hit it, and how mad they'll be when they do. If a user who goes through three levels of menus, opens an advanced configuration window, checks three checkboxes, and hits the 'A' key gets a weird error message for his trouble, that's a little bug. It's buried deep, and when the user hits it, he says 'huh,' clicks a button, and then goes on his merry way. If your program crashes on launch for a common setup, though, that's a big bug. Lots of people will hit it, and they will all be pissed. ... The cost of fixing all the bugs in your program and then being sure you fixed them all is way too high compared to the cost of having a few users hit some bugs they won't care about."
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
The Incredible Turbo Encabulator
Several years ago, Rockwell International decided to get into the heavy duty transmission business. We were getting ready to tape our first introduction video, as a warm up, the professional narrator began what has become a legend within the trucking industry. This man should have won an academy award for his stellar performance. Now remember this is strictly off the cuff, nothing is written down, this became the biggest talk in the industry, as our new product which we were introducing. I think you will enjoy this once in a lifetime performance from this gentleman.
- Full Article Source

03/29/10 -
The Stupidity of Our Paranoia, grow up, take chances
A funny clip about different members of our national security going after a "Terrorist" - (Thanks to Norm for this headsup..pathetic what wimps people are these days thanks to media generated paranoia and gov ingress into our rights through the hyping of fear. Just take the chance and LIVE FREE, tens if not hundreds of thousands more people die from car wrecks, cancer, smoking, etc. than any so-called terrorist attack and no one worries about those deaths, just a part of modern life, but boy, mention terrorism and the sheep insanity follows. People need to get off their knees and grow some cojones! - JWD)
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03/29/10 -
Israel Gives The Finger To The USA
It is a case of the dog biting the hand that feeds it. After years of protection by Big Brother USA, covering up for its having nuclear warheads when Iran cannot even have a nuclear program, looking the other way when shocking war crimes and massacres of civilians are committed, when pregnant Palestinian mothers are left to die in the streets, Israel sticks up the middle finger in a classic display of pig-headed arrogance by Netanyahu at AIPAC. Immediately after the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that Israel had to stop building illegal settlements (far from stopping, they should be either handed over to the Palestinians whose lands were stolen together with a hefty reparations payment or else demolished), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded with the most shocking display of pig-headed arrogance in his address to a cheering AIPAC, claiming that Israelis were building in Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and continue to do so now. Cut off the 3 billion a year and they'll act right.
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03/26/10 -
'Compressed Sensing' for Enhancing Photos
A relatively new field of mathematics called “compressed sensing” is being used to create high resolution data from a low resolution sample by using an algorithm to calculate the most simple and obvious substitute for a missing piece of information: If it sees a cluster of green pixels near one another, for instance, it might plunk down a big green rectangle that fills the space between them. If it sees a cluster of yellow pixels, it puts down a large yellow rectangle. In areas where different colors are interspersed, it puts down smaller and smaller rectangles or other shapes that fill the space between each color. It keeps doing that over and over. Eventually it ends up with an image made of the smallest possible combination of building blocks and whose 1 million pixels have all been filled in with colors. Besides enhancing photos, the l1 minimization algorithm can also be used to restore musical recordings, pinpoint enemy radio signals, speed up MRI scans, allow digital cameras to use far less memory and battery power to achieve a similar final result, etc..
- Full Article Source

Bladerunner Esper Photo Analysis

03/26/10 -
Phone call emotion analyzer is a winner
An Israeli company, eXaudios Technologies, has developed a software application that automatically analyzes the intonation and volume of a person’s speech in real time and translates it into statements and graphics describing the speaker’s emotions. The system, dubbed Maginify, is likely to find its way into call centers to monitor calls, where it will allow the staff to identify callers who are becoming angry, and react to appease rather than inflate the anger. It will also enable supervisors to monitor the call center agents, and even step in if required, to try to turn the call around. Managers will be able to identify agents who are behaving in a way that tends to anger customers, and agents may be able to adjust their own behavior when they see their call statistics. Callers will also benefit because they will be able to leave a message when they call in, and the most upset or angry would be pushed to the front of the queue to speak to a live agent. The system identifies a range of emotions, but in the call center environment anger and happiness are the most important in terms of keeping customers, and the profits that often come with them. The Maginify system is independent of the language spoken and analyzes the intonation of the voice. Its inventor and CEO of eXaudios Technologies, Yoram Levanon, said the system produces a statement of the speaker’s emotions in 10-15 seconds, with around 80% accuracy. Levanon said that for unknown reasons the technology is less accurate when the speaker has dyslexia. / When people speak, their voice generates a collection of sound waves of various frequencies and intensities. The choice of component frequencies and intensities is both instinctive and involuntarily. Drs. Levanon and Lossos hypothesized that the choice of frequencies and intensities used in speech are reflective of a speaker’s personality and his emotional state. To test their theory, they conducted personality assessments of many individuals and compared the resulting profiles with voice patterns. And indeed, after analyzing thousands of digitized voice samples, during eleven years of research, they were able to identify physical speech variables that correlate with personality types.
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
Energy-efficient homes make householders complacent
SURVEYS of hundreds of UK households reveal that people who have made their houses more energy efficient are more likely to indulge in small excesses - turning up the heating, for example, or keeping it on for longer. Small excesses add up to large costs. The results of the studies - seven of them in total - suggest that such energy creep could wipe out as much as half of the anticipated savings from making homes more energy efficient (Building Research & Information, vol 38, issue 1). "Some householders who install double-glazing, insulation and energy-efficient boilers end up using fuel at close to the old levels, often because they are more concerned about comfort than saving energy," says David Lomas of Loughborough University, UK. He was a lead member of the UK-government-funded consortium which carried out the surveys.
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
New Stealth Jumpjet makes first hover landing
'Cobblestones' effect reduced, says Brit test pilot. “Today’s vertical landing onto a 95-foot square pad showed that we have the thrust and the control to maneuver accurately both in free air and in the descent through ground effect,” said Tomlinson, a former RAF Harrier jockey and now lead test pilot for the F-35B. The first three jumpjets are in flight tests at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. The vertical landing was a venture into the unknown for the F-35B, as its design is radically different from the Harrier and it had not previously hovered low enough for surface effects to come into play. Tomlinson has previously said that the F-35B is easier to handle in the hover than a Harrier: apart from more sophisticated control systems, he says that the forward lift fan, driven by a shaft from the engine and mounted in a vertical tunnel behind the cockpit*, blasts cool air downward as the swivelling jetpipe nozzle at the back of the plane blows fiercely hot jet exhaust. In the Harrier, hot exhaust roiling up from the ground can get sucked into the jet's engine intakes, causing unpredictable power blips, but Tomlinson has said that the F-35B's fanshaft air acts as a "dam", causing the hot exhaust to stay to the rear and letting the engine operate more consistently. He told reporters that the "cobblestones" felt during a hover landing were "very light" compared to his days flying Harriers.
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
MIT boffins on track of portable 60-watt seawater desalinator
According to MIT computing/electrical engineering brainboxes Sung Jae Kim and Jongyoon Han and colleagues in Korea, it should be possible to fabricate 1600 micro water purifiers on an 8-inch wafer. Such a unit would be able to purify 15 litres of water each hour, using "as much power as a conventional lightbulb" - say 60 watts, then. According to Han and Kim*, the kit isn't as efficient in terms of power as reverse osmosis, so it would only be for small-scale use. Even so, it could be handy in other situations than disaster relief. Small boats or yachts would be a possible market, or any coastal dwelling with access to electricity but not mains water. Small wind-up jobs could be a useful addition to survival kits and lifeboats. A single unit has already been built and tested successfully using Massachusetts seawater purposely contaminated with "small plastic particles, protein and human blood". "We clearly demonstrated that we can do it at the unit chip level," says Kim. The next challenge will be the assembly of first a 100-unit system, then a field-scale 10,000-unit job able to supply a large group of people. "We'll know if it's possible, and what problems might need to be worked on," according to Kim, in two years' time.
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
Nature by Numbers
Created by Cristóbal Vila, this video manages to explain how everything, from snails to flowers, is built according to predictable mathematical principles. Numbers have never been more sublime
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03/26/10 -
Cancel stalled print jobs without waiting years
Just fire up Stalled Printer Repair next time you're staring at a stuck job in the print queue that won't be deleted. The app will detect stalled print jobs, purge any stalled jobs, and get your printer back up and running. It basically performs the same task we described in our previous post, only you don't risk any problems from a mistyped batch file. Stalled Printer Repair is a free, portable download for Windows that could save you a whole lot of headaches in the future.
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03/26/10 -
What does the health-care law mean to me? Online Estimator
The health-care overhaul will change the way millions of Americans get health insurance and require nearly everyone to have health insurance or face penalties. A number of factors - including income, age, location and family size - will determine how it specifically impacts your life. This tool estimates what it could mean for your health coverage and taxes based on your income, family size and current insurance status.
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03/26/10 -
Tata Nano is Developing a Bad Habit: Bursting Into Flames
“World’s cheapest car” it’s been called, and unquestionably the Tata Nano has brought about a revolution in India. In carving out a niche as an affordable, simple, and incredibly fuel efficient car for the average folk in poorer nations like India, it has also sparked a change within the global auto industry to the point where Toyota, Nissan, Ford and many other major players are now trying to compete with the Nano in this new ultra-cheap minicar segment. But along with that, the Nano is also, quite literally, sparking something else: Over the last year, a list of Nanos that have an apparent bad habit of spontaneously combusting has been growing in India — the latest one involving a minutes-old Nano being driven home by its proud new owner. And as you can see in the above pic, that car is toast. Tata says they are investigating this “unique case,” but the fact of the matter is, since its introduction last year there have been at least three other reported cases of flaming Nanos. Initially blamed on getting the kinks of production worked out, the Nano is now a year old and it is still presenting these niggling problems.
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
Tuberculosis remains a worldwide scourge
Today is World TB Day — a day to focus the world’s attention on tuberculosis and its threat to human health. Tuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease that generally attacks the lungs, but also can affect other parts of the body. TB is most often spread through the air, when people who have the disease cough, sneeze or spit. Symptoms of TB include a chronic cough, a fever, night sweats and sudden loss of weight. About 1.8 million people die from tuberculosis annually. The worldwide number includes people who are co-infected with TB and HIV. In addition, about 9.4 million new tuberculosis cases are diagnosed annually. The reality is that many of those who die could be spared with a drug treatment program that costs just $20 per person. As with so many diseases, prevention is much less expensive than treatment once a patient has developed a full blown case of tuberculosis. Doctors are finding more cases of drug- resistant TB. In fact, cases of extensively drug- resistant TB have been identified in 57 countries, and the mortality rate for those patients is 85 percent. Left unchecked, the world could return to the days when tuberculosis was synonymous with death.
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
Optimism Boosts Immune System
Optimism doesn't just boost your mood. According to new research, a glass-half-full attitude also strengthens the immune system. The study, which tracked changes in optimism and immune response among first-year law students, found that as students became more optimistic, they showed stronger cell-mediated immunity, the flood of immune cells that respond to an invasion by foreign viruses or bacteria. When optimism dropped, so did cell-mediated immunity. / To investigate the connection, Segerstrom recruited 124 incoming law students and had them complete five questionnaires and immunity checks over the course of a year. The questionnaires measured students' optimism by asking how closely they identified with statements like "I will be less successful than most of my classmates." To test immunity, the students had a dose of dead mumps virus or candida yeast injected under the skin of the forearm. These harmless cocktails trigger a cellular immune response, resulting in a small bump at the injection site. By measuring the bump, researchers can estimate the strength of the immune response. As the students experienced classes, exams and internship interviews, their optimism levels rose and fell. So did their cell-mediated immunity. When optimism went up, so did the cell-mediated immune response. When optimism dropped, the immune system weakened.
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
British Military Developing Force Fields
Researchers at the British military's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory want to use supercharged electromagnetic fields to repulse attacks on tanks and other combat vehicles. Supercapacitors built into the armor of these vehicles can store huge amounts of energy, which would then be deployed when an incoming threat is detected. The field would theoretically be powerful enough to deflect pretty much anything up to small missiles, and the supercapacitors would be able to quickly recharge to prevent a subsequent attack. Professor Bryn James of the Science and Technology Laboratory stresses how much this would reduce the need for heavy armor on combat vehicles: The supercapacitor material can be charged up and then discharged in one powerful event to repel incoming fire. You would think this would require huge amounts of energy, but we have found it can be done with surprisingly small amounts of electrical power.Conventional armour is just a lump of metal but an RPG round can punch through more than a foot of steel. Carrying around enough armour to protect against that is extremely heavy. The real advantage to the electric armour is how light it can be by comparison. The real issue is one of timing. The electromagnetic field created would only last for a fraction of a second, so it would be absolutely critical to deploy the field at precisely the right moment to repel the attack. Turning this new technology into a reality on the battlefield will likely require the development of advanced tracking systems that can gauge the exact instant to fire up the field.
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
New Form of Insulin Can Be Inhaled Rather Than Injected
Scientists have described a new ultra-rapid acting mealtime insulin (AFREZZA™) that is orally inhaled for absorption via the lung. Because the insulin is absorbed so rapidly, AFREZZA’s profile closely mimics the normal early insulin response seen in healthy individuals. AFREZZA is awaiting approval by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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03/26/10 -
10 Search Engines to Explore the Invisible Web
The Invisible Web refers to the part of the WWW that’s not indexed by the search engines. Most of us think that that search powerhouses like Google and Bing are like the Great Oracle…they see everything. Unfortunately, they can’t because they aren’t divine at all; they are just web spiders who index pages by following one hyperlink after the other. But there are some places where a spider cannot enter. Take library databases which need a password for access. Or even pages that belong to private networks of organizations. Dynamically generated web pages in response to a query are often left un-indexed by search engine spiders. Search engine technology has progressed by leaps and bounds. Today, we have real time search and the capability to index Flash based and PDF content. Even then, there remain large swathes of the web which a general search engine cannot penetrate. The term, Deep Net, Deep Web or Invisible Web lingers on. To get a more precise idea of the nature of this ‘Dark Continent’ involving the invisible and web search engines, read what Wikipedia has to say about the Deep Web. The figures are attention grabbers – the size of the open web is 167 terabytes. The Invisible Web is estimated at 91,000 terabytes. Check this out – the Library of Congress, in 1997, was figured to have close to 3,000 terabytes!
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03/26/10 -
Light Bends Matter
Light can twist matter, according to a new study that observed ribbons of nanoparticles twisting in response to light. Scientists knew matter can cause light to bend - prisms and glasses prove this easily enough. But the reverse phenomenon was not shown to occur until recently. The researchers assembled strings of nanoparticles, which are tiny clumps of matter on the scale of nanometers (one nanometer is one billionth of a meter). In a darkened lab, the scientists linked nanoparticles together into ribbons. At first the nano ribbons were flat, but when a light was shone on them, they curled up into spirals. The surface of the nanoparticles in this experiment were made of cadmium sulfide. To begin with, they had a slightly negative electromagnetic charge. But when photons, or particles of light, hit the nanoparticles, their energy excited electrons on the nanoparticles, causing chemical reactions that made them even more negatively charged. Since two negative charges repel each other, the nanoparticles began to repel more strongly. "What's happening is a layer of nanoparticles starts repulsing from the others, so it creates mechanical stress, and in order to release this stress the ribbon twists itself," Kotov told LiveScience. "It's very much like what's happening when you stretch a Christmas ribbon on a gift box and from the flat ribbon it becomes a spiral."
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03/26/10 -
After 20 years, local physicist gets patent for magnet
The patent lets inventor RoyWeinstein move forward with commercial development of his supermagnets that, when chilled to super-low temperatures, can produce a field with the strength of 2 tesla, billions of times stronger than the magnet on your refrigerator. Weinstein's magnets are about the size of a stack of five dimes, weigh an ounce, and cost $300. Commercially available electromagnets that can produce a comparable magnetic field weigh two tons and cost $60,000 to $100,000, he says. The most immediate application may be in motors, which use magnets to create motion. The stronger the magnet, the more powerful the motor. Although the magnets would have to be kept cool with liquid nitrogen, this would be cost-effective in larger motors, Weinstein said. The prospect of a more powerful, much smaller magnet has experts excited. “The basic design of motors has been understood for about a century,” said Robert Hebner, director of the Center for Electromechanics at the University of Texas at Austin. “It's new materials that make it exciting, and it seems to me this is a material that has the potential to revolutionize motors.” Weinstein said he is developing a $7 million agreement with Round Rock-based TECO-Westinghouse Motor Co. to construct a 1 megawatt motor that will be a prototype for a 10 megawatt version. The company declined comment.
- Full Article Source. / Patent 7,667,562 - Weinstein - February 23, 2010 - Magnetic field replicator and method - Abstract - A new class of fundamental devices and methods for their manufacture and use. The bulk magnetic field replicators of the present invention require no precision machining or alignment to accurately reproduce magnetic fields of any complexity, nor extreme positional stability to maintain superconductivity. Such bulk devices may be formed of either low or high critical temperature superconductive materials, but are particularly adapted to formation from high critical temperature materials.

03/26/10 -
Senators to NASA: Get your ass to Mars
NASA lacks a clear vision for the future of US human spaceflight, US Senators told the space agency's chief on Wednesday. A Senate science subcommittee clashed with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden over President Barack Obama's proposed 2011 budget, which effectively kills the previous administration's goal of returning to the Moon and onto Mars. Skeptical lawmakers told the agency it must aim for something specific, rather than just talk about vague ambitions. Several also blasted the budget request for putting US engineers and astronauts out of work for lacking a planned successor to the space shuttle program. "You don't accomplish great things without a clearly defined mission, and this budget has no clearly defined mission," said Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana.
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03/26/10 -
One Spoonful Per Day
Chesebrough's success stemmed from firm belief in his product. Before Chesebrough began selling petroleum jelly, he tested it on his own cuts and burns. Having demonstrated the product's efficacy on himself, Chesebrough was still unable to sell any to drug stores until he travelled around New York State demonstrating his miracle product. In front of an audience he would burn his skin with acid or an open flame, then spread the clear jelly on his injuries while demonstrating past injuries, healed, he claimed, by his miracle product. Chesebrough lived to be 96 years old and was such a believer in Vaseline that he claimed to have eaten a spoonful of it every day. He also, reportedly, during a serious bout of pleurisy in his mid-50s, had his nurse rub him from head to foot with the substance. He soon recovered.
- Full Article Source

The cost of the Iraq War and Afghanistan War (so far) are estimated to be:

* $975 billion since 2001

Those are remarkably close. Which represents the best use of tax-payer money?
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03/26/10 -
Gulf Stream turbine inventors seek investors
An Illinois-based company is seeking investors to license its invention to generate a constant supply of energy from the flow of the Gulf Stream. Gulf Stream Turbines has developed a turbine system it says could produce electricity continuously from the ocean current running from the Gulf of Mexico and up the US Atlantic Coast. Thousands of the machines could be generating electricity from the current off the coast of South Florida, it suggested. The firm says its system would not generate intermittent energy, as most other forms of wind, wave or tidal energy turbines do. It says its device could operate near to its theoretical capacity to produce between two and six times the electricity output compared to a wind turbine – at “one half to one-sixth the cost”. The firm’s website suggests that the system would involve capital costs of between $2,000 and $2,500 per kW of operating capacity. The company believes a $750,000 to $1 million investment will be needed to finalize research and development, tooling and design, and that $8 million to $10 million will be needed to build and test a full-scale prototype.
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03/26/10 -
Hot water freezes faster than cold?
Aristotle, Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes all thought hot water would freeze faster than cold water. The idea sounds ridiculous, but don't write it off just yet. New research shows that hot water really can freeze faster—sometimes, under very specific conditions. This is a great example of how what we see isn't always the full story.
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03/26/10 -
Planned Nuclear Reactors Will Destroy Atomic Waste
"A group of French scientists are developing a nuclear reactor that burns up actinides — highly radioactive uranium isotopes. They estimate that 'the volume of high-level nuclear waste produced by all of France’s 58 reactors over the past 40 years could fit in one Olympic-size swimming pool.' And they're not the only ones trying to eliminate atomic waste: Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin are working on a fusion-fission reactor. The reactor destroys waste by firing streams of neutrons at it, reducing atomic waste by up to 99 percent!"
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
Laptop Computers Detect and Monitor Earthquakes
"Live Science reports that 1,000 people from 61 countries have signed up with the Quake-Catcher Network to take advantage of built-in accelerometers in newer laptops that transmit data about earthquakes to researchers at UC Irvine and Stanford University. 'It's providing additional data that can be fed into the seismic networks,' says Elizabeth Cochran, a UC Irvine geoscientist. 'It also allows us to record earthquakes at a scale that we haven't been able to before because of the cost.' Cochran came up with the idea for the Quake-Catcher Network when she learned that most new laptops come equipped with accelerometers designed to switch off the hard drive if the laptop is dropped. 'I figured that we could easily tap into this data and use it to record earthquakes.' While traditional seismic monitors can detect earthquakes of magnitude 1.0 or less, the lowest magnitude the Quake-Catcher Network can detect is about 4.0, a moderate quake much like the one that hit LA on March 16. But what the network lacks in sensitivity, it makes up for in price as traditional seismic sensors cost $5,000 to $10,000 apiece. 'Ideally we would have seismometers in every building, or at least on every block. And in tall buildings, we'd have multiple sensors [on different floors],' says Cochran. 'That way, we would be able to actually get much higher detail images of how the ground shakes during an earthquake.'"
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
Will the USA's Zombie Technology Collapse?
Uncharted terrortory, a new poll shows 79% of Americans fear our zombie economy might collapse. Not during the darkest hours of 9/11, Vietnam, the Cuban missile crisis, Korea or even World War II have Americans been this skittish about our economy. A new poll finds that 79 percent of voters think it’s possible the economy could collapse, including large majorities of Democrats (72 percent), Republicans (84 percent) and independents (80 percent). You'd have to go all the way back to the depression era just prior to World War II, October 30, 1938, to find a time when the American herd was this skittish about anything. That was the day that the broadcast of Orson Wells' radio drama "War of the Worlds" sent Americans fleeing their homes in panic all across the land. It wasn't an economic collapse they feared back then. It was the gathering clouds of a new world war. Never before has there been this much skittishness about an economic collapse of our nation, but why are Americans so freaked? Aren't our politicos, central bankers, pundits and talking heads all constantly reassuring us that all is sound? I thin it is Hollywood that is to blame. For giving so many Americans such a keen understanding of exactly what a zombie is. Thanks to Hollywood, Americans now keenly understanding that temporarily reanimating a corpse doesn't really make it a living thing again. So, just because all the world's politicos and central bankers went into full panic 'national security' mode and began printing trillions of paper dollars to spend on overt and covert operations to paint a little rouge on the pale dead corpses of the world's financial markets. Doesn't mean that those markets are actually alive again. Not at all, they could just be lumbering along muttering: "Feed me, no not brains, want eat your children's futures."
Bloomberg has been suing under the Freedom of Information Act to find out the true magnitude and nature of their 'national security' financial shenanigans, but our politicos and central bankers are hell bent on keep as much of what they have done a deep dark secret as they possibly can. Americans aren't buying their zombie markets. They are frightened by them. And this is why even more of Americas are feeling skittish today than was the case back in 1938, when so many of them ran out into the streets in panic over a radio drama about a Martian invasion. Shhhh! Careful, the slightest little sound could trigger a stampede. Whatever you do, don't anyone step on a twig.
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03/26/10 -
US Lawmakers Eyeing National ID Card
According to Wired (and no big surprise, considering the practicalities of implementing massive changes in medical finance), US lawmakers "are proposing a national identification card, a 'fraud-proof' Social Security card required for lawful employment in the United States. The proposal comes as the Department of Homeland Security is moving toward nationalizing driver licenses."
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
High Fructose Corn Syrup Causes Bigger Weight Gain In Rats
"In an experiment conducted by a Princeton University team, 'Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.' Long-term consumption also 'led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides.' Psychology professor Bart Hoebel commented that 'When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese — every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight.'"
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
GM Unveils Networked Electric Mini Cars
"GM introduced its Electric Networked Vehicle prototypes, one third the size of a typical car, as a way to reduce big urban auto emissions and traffic congestion. The EN-V relies on dynamic stabilization technology similar to that of the one-person Segway scooter to keep its balance, and can be operated autonomously or under manual control. In autonomous mode the EN-V is designed to use high-speed wireless connectivity and GPS navigation to automatically select the fastest route, based on real-time traffic conditions gleaned from the Web or some other networked source of traffic information."
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
Balloon and Duct Tape Deliver Great Space Photos
"With a budget of £500, Robert Harrison used cheap parts, a weather balloon, some duct tape, a digital camera, and a GPS device to capture some great photos of the earth from space that resulted in NASA calling him to find out how he had done it. 'A guy phoned up who worked for Nasa who was interested in how we took the pictures," said Mr Harrison. 'He wanted to know how the hell we did it. He thought we used a rocket. They said it would have cost them millions of dollars.' The details of his balloon are as follows: he used 'an ordinary Canon camera mounted on a weather balloon', 'free software' that 'reprogrammed the camera to wake up every five minutes and take eight photographs and a video before switching off for a rest.' He also ensured the camera was 'wrapped in loft insulation' to make sure it could operate at the cold temperatures. The GPS device allowed him to pinpoint the balloon's location, and retrieve the camera when it fell down to earth attached to a small parachute."
- Full Article Source

03/26/10 -
90% of the Universe Found Hiding In Plain View
"As much as 90% of previously hidden galaxies in the distant Universe have been found by astronomers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Previous surveys had looked for distant (10 billion light years away) galaxies by searching in a wavelength of ultraviolet light emitted by hydrogen atoms — distant young galaxies should be blasting out this light, but very few were detected. The problem is that the ultraviolet light never gets out of the galaxies, so we never see them. In this new study, astronomers searched a different wavelength emitted by hydrogen, and voila, ten times as many galaxies could be seen, meaning 90% of them had been missed before."
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Kid Inventor's Fan Powered Skateboard on Ellen
Bonsall fourth-grader Chris Neal, 9, recently was on the Ellen DeGeneres Show to show off the fan-powered skateboard he made for a school project. "I told Ellen that you get tired riding a skateboard," Chris said of his idea. "With this one, the fan pushes it so you don't have to push it all the time with your leg." Chris' mother, Leslie Neal, said she took him to see her uncle, Keith Busby, in Huntington Beach when her son showed her his plans for the what seemed like a fairly daunting project. "My uncle owns a repair garage in Huntington Beach, so we went up there and started looking around for parts." Chris and his uncle worked for two weekends to build the device, Chris said. They used a motorcycle battery to power the fan, which can push the board along at 3 to 5 mph with someone riding it. Neal said she wasn't surprised that Chris and Busby were able to make the idea into reality. The two share uncommon mechanical ability, she explained.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Science is not an economic problem - it's a solution
The UK's science budget still amounts to just one quarter of one percent of our GDP. And yet the government - and its likely successors - seems bent on endangering the economy's dependence on innovation in order to shave pennies in the pound off spending, as Britain tries to cut the budget deficit created by the banking bail-out. Funding in many areas has stagnated or been cut, important programs have been curbed and further hundreds of millions are at risk across education and research. This will force British scientists to withdraw from international projects, failing to make good on promises made in happier times and seriously damaging our reputation in the international scientific community. As Brian Cox pointed out at a meeting of Westminster Skeptics on Monday, this is a false economy. Cutting scientific programs that are likely to generate such enormous value for our society seems to make no sense. When I look at the figures, I see in science funding an obvious opportunity to strengthen our economy and Britain's position as a world-leading nation. Yet politicians seem to see a luxury or burden. Science seems at times to be undervalued by our society to a bewildering extent.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Ecological breakthrough from absalutecology.com
Absalut Ecology is creating a unique patented technology relating to methods of reducing airborne oxidized particulates. Borisenko Universal Installation not only effectively cleans harmful impurities from industrial waste, but it also recycles the CO2 produced, keeping the environment safe and clean.
Very simple and cost effective, the world of scientists recognized this revolutionary invention as a major discovery and the most efficient way to clean the air, with a spectacular 99,95% result, using only 1% of energy and returning 100 times more. / Nowadays when the Earth meets the problem of global warming, the World is searching for energy-saving technologies. We introduce the technology, which is purifying any combustion gas. The technology is based on a new electrochemical method of purifying industrial gases in unipolar-ionized area at strong electric field environment, where the molecules of gas are split up. After purification oxygen goes to the atmosphere and chemical elements of gas composition are recovered.
For additional information about the technology, please, write to absalut@absalutecology.com or visit our web-site www.absalutecology.com.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Iron-nitrogen compound forms strongest magnet known
A group of scientists from the University of Minnesota say that Fe16N2 crystals are more magnetic than the most magnetic material previously known, and its magnetism exceeds the predicted limit of magnetism for a material. A group of materials physicists from Twin Cities, Minnesota, led by Jian-Ping Wang have found a material comprising 16 iron atoms and two of nitrogen is approximately 18% more magnetic than the predicted limit. The findings of x-ray analysis of the compound showed that six iron atoms are clustered around each nitrogen, with two more located between the two clusters. The researchers said electrons flowing between the clusters act like they do in ordinary iron, but within the clusters, the electrons tend to be localized, and this increases the magnetism. If the magnets can be manufactured commercially they could allow computer manufacturers to use smaller write heads that could hold more information. The findings were reported at the American Physical Society’s meeting this month.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
U.S. States in Financial Meltdown
A story that is not getting nearly enough attention is the ruinous fiscal meltdown occurring in state after state, all across the country. Taxes are being raised. Draconian cuts in services are being made. Public employees are being fired. The tissue-thin national economic recovery is being undermined. And in many cases, the most vulnerable populations — the sick, the elderly, the young and the poor — are getting badly hurt. “We’ve talked in the past about revenue declines in a recession,” said Jon Shure of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “but I think you have to call this one a revenue collapse. In proportional terms, there has never been a drop in state revenues like we’re seeing now since people started to keep track of state revenues. We’re in unchartered territory when it comes to the magnitude of the impact.” In the first two months of this year, state and local governments across the U.S. cut 45,000 jobs. Additional layoffs are expected as states move ahead with their budgets for fiscal 2011. Increasingly these budgets, instead of helping people, are hurting them, undermining the quality of their lives, depriving them of educational opportunities, preventing them from accessing desperately needed medical care, and so on. The federal government has tried to help, but much more assistance is needed. Dr. Redlener issued a warning nearly a year ago about the “frightening” toll the recession was taking on children. He told me last April, “We are seeing the emergence of what amounts to a ‘recession generation.’ ” The impact of the recession on everyone, of whatever age, is only made worse when states trying to balance their budgets focus too intently on cutting services as opposed to a mix of service cuts and revenue-raising measures. As Mr. Shure of the Center on Budget noted, “The cruel irony is that in a recession like this, the people’s needs go up at the same time that the states’ ability to meet those needs goes down.” Budget cuts also tend to weaken rather than strengthen a state’s economy, especially when they entail furloughs or layoffs. Government spending stimulates an economy in recession. And wise spending is an investment in everyone’s quality of life. All states have been rocked by the Great Recession. And most have tried to cope with a reasonable mix of budget cuts and tax increases, or other revenue-raising measures. Those that rely too heavily on cuts are making guaranteed investments in human misery.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Infinite USB Plug Requires Just One Port
Meet the Infinite USB. This device helps "keep all your cables connected, thereby facilitating those smartphone syncs, spy camera recharges, and -- for the ultimate irony -- maybe even a USB hub." The design speaks for itself, so no point elaborating, however what we can do is talk about its effectiveness and limitations.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Russia's Gunpowder Rocket
The Dnepr is one of those "swords into ploughshares" stories. Under the terms of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, a number of former Soviet SS18 ICBMs were decommissioned. Their atomic warheads were removed and their third-stages were modified to deploy spacecraft. More than 40 satellites have now ridden the Dnepr into orbit. They launch from the famous Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and from the Dombarovsky base just across the border in southern Russia. The company that markets the vehicle, ISC Kosmotras, has charged the European Space Agency (Esa) a little under 20m euros to send Cryosat on its way. Essentially, the rocket is packed inside a canister which is loaded into a silo.

At launch, a black powder charge underneath the vehicle produces rapidly expanding gases that pop the Dnepr up out of the ground like a champagne cork. There is then this heart-stopping moment when the vehicle just hangs 20m above the ground before the first-stage motors kick in and the former war machine climbs skyward. Its first-stage will fall to Earth in Turkmenistan, another former Soviet republic. The second-stage will fall into the Indian Ocean. It's then that something quite unusual will happen. When satellites are deployed by upper-stages, the normal practice is to use a spring mechanism to push them out in a forward direction. The Dnepr is completely different. Immediately after the second and third-stages separate, the third-stage does a flip manoeuvre; and it flies backwards! A shroud that covers the satellite and protects it from the exhaust gases of those flipping thrusters is then jettisoned. It's at this point that the satellite is ejected. It gets chucked out the back, in the rearward direction.
- Full Article Source

The Inertia Reaction Force and Its Vacuum Origin - By means of a covariant approach we show that there must be a contribution to the inertial mass and to the inertial reaction force on an accelerated massive object by the zero-point electromagnetic field. This development does not require any detailed model of the accelerated object other than the knowledge that it interacts electromagnetically. It is shown that inertia can indeed be construed as an opposition of the vacuum fields to any change to the uniform state of motion of an object. Interesting insights originating from this result are discussed. It is argued why the proposed existence of a Higgs field in no way contradicts or is at odds with the above statements.
The Higgs field is responsible for assigning mass to elementary particles. It is argued that still the underlying reason for the opposition to acceleration that massive objects present requires an explanation. The explanation proposed here fulfills that requirement. - (Think Velcro...when a mass is at rest, the velcro hooks are engaged, essentially locking mass into space...when the mass begins moving it is having to 'overcome inertia', as speed increases the velcro hooks gradually unlock from the space background and the mass can be more easily moved. - JWD)

03/23/10 -
Nano-Gadget Holds the Salt
Water desalination plants can effectively turn seawater into drinking water, but they're hardly portable. Now a team has created a salt-removing gadget so small that hundreds of them could fit onto a penny. If researchers can scale up this invention into a working device, it could generate up to a glass of fresh water per minute using about the same energy as a table lamp does. Ion Channel Polarization (ICP) has been around for a while, says Han, but it's never been used to desalinate water. In ICP, a liquid with charged and neutral ions, such as seawater, is run through a channel. Along the channel is an electrical potential that repels charged particles. This causes the liquid to split, creating one stream with charged particles and another with neutral particles. "We thought, if we apply this technique to the seawater, then we can eliminate [salt] ions," says Sung Jae Kim, head of the project and a postdoc in Han's lab. To test whether ICP could remove salt and other charged contaminants in water, such as bacteria and certain pollutants, Kim added blood cells to seawater and tagged them with fluorescent dye. Kim then put the saltwater through a channel the width of a few hairs and had it pass through the ion-repulsion area. On one side was a very salty, fluorescent mixture, and on the other side was freshwater-though that water would still need to be put through a charcoal filter to eliminate neutral materials, such as hydrocarbons, from industrial pollution. So you could shower with water produced by ICP alone, says Kim, but you still wouldn't want to drink it.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Plastiki Sets Sail For Australia
The world first soda bottle boat set sail for Australia Saturday. Plastiki launched from Sausalito, California at 9:30 a.m., gliding under the Golden Gate Bridge on its way to the Island continent. The vessel, made from more than 12-thousand discarded soda bottles, is the invention of banking heir David de Rothschild. He designed and built Plastiki in an effort to draw attention to the amount of trash the world produces. Most plastic bottles end up in landfills instead of being recycled or reused. The six-man crew will sail eleven-thousand nautical miles to Sydney. Members are packing one-thousand liters of water and some fishing rods. The crew will have to stop a few times during the trip to stock up on food and other supplies.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
'Cold fusion' moves closer to acceptance by mainstream science
That's the conclusion of the organizer of one of the largest scientific sessions on the topic - "cold fusion" - being held here for the next two days in the Moscone Center during the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). "Years ago, many scientists were afraid to speak about 'cold fusion' to a mainstream audience," said Jan Marwan, the internationally known expert who organized the symposium. Entitled "New Energy Technology," the symposium will include nearly 50 presentations describing the latest discoveries on the topic. The presentations describe invention of an inexpensive new measuring device that could enable more labs to begin cold fusion research; indications that cold fusion may occur naturally in certain bacteria; progress toward a battery based on cold fusion; and a range of other topics. Marwan noted that many of the presentations suggest that cold fusion is real, with a potential to contribute to energy supplies in the 21st Century. "The field is now experiencing a rebirth in research efforts and interest, with evidence suggesting that cold fusion may be a reality," Marwan said. The term "cold fusion" originated in 1989 when Martin Fleishmann and Stanley Pons claimed achieving nuclear fusion at room temperature with a simple, inexpensive tabletop device.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Pedal-charged lights provide sustainable power
Finding sustainable sources of energy is crucial around the world, particularly as countries try to balance the need for improved access to power with curbing growth of climate-changing carbon emissions. The Nuru light may be one answer. The invention of Sameer Hajee, a Canadian electrical engineer and social entrepreneur with Kenyan and Indian roots, the lights require no fossil fuel and can be recharged by anyone capable of riding a bicycle. The recharging machine - the Powercycle - is a simple invention: two cycle pedals fitted to a box which charges up to five lights at a time using pedal-power. The $150 machine is typically bought by an entrepreneur with micro-finance loans, which are then paid off by charging customers to recharge the lights. TWENTY MINUTE RIDE FOR LIGHT - After a full recharge - which takes around 20 minutes of pedaling - each light has sufficient power to provide night-time lighting needs for an average of 10 days, Hajee said; in Rwanda, the cost of a recharge is about 27 U.S. cents. Typically buyers are able to pay off their loans in about six months, he said. Murebwayire Godence, who owns the Nuru light recharging machine in Vestine's village in Rwanda, said she already has 67 customers, but thinks she can manage a five-fold increase by the end of 2010. The lights can be used to help children study at night, to look after a baby after dark, to take to the toilet and so on, users said. With the lights, "my children no longer take a long journey back to school at night to study for their exams," Vestine said. "They all now read happily at home." The invention won Hajee the U.N. Environmental Program Sasakawa Prize for 2009-2010. The $200,000 prize honours grassroots sustainable innovation projects that charge lives and can be replicated around the world.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Invention Could Help Runaway Toyotas
The runaway Prius and several class-action lawsuits aren't helping Toyota's problems. But a La Crosse areal inventor thinks a small device he created may be able to stop cars from speeding out of control. Jet skies and snowmobiles have a kill switch that immediately shuts off an engine if something were to go wrong. Robert Albertson is the inventor behind those switches, and he says a similar device for cars may be just what Toyota needs. Since his first invention in 1951, Robert Albertson of Alma, Wisconsin says he has acquired more than 200 patents. And thinks he may have the device to solve some of Toyota's problems. "I don't care if it's a floor mat, or mechanical linkage problem, or electronic, this will work on any condition that is causing sudden acceleration," Albertson said. It's a small box that's installed in your vehicle, similar to the way remote car starters are installed. By putting your foot on the break the the vehicle shuts off immediately. Albertson thinks it may have the potential to save lives. He said, "If the throttle for some reason get stuck, either mechanically, floor mat, or electronically, when the person steps on the break pedal, we will stop the engine."
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Climate warming created farming
A new study by Dr. Shahal Abbo of Israel says the invention of farming wasn't due to climate change because farming depends on a relatively stable climate. Dr. Abbo isn't looking at the picture broadly enough. The ice cores tell us the invention of farming came about not long after the end of the last Ice Age, one of the earth's key climate changes. Modern Homo sapiens had been around for over 100,000 years—but we've found no evidence of farming until after the last big ice sheets melted about 10,700 years ago. Before then, humans had been stealing birds' eggs, digging clams, gathering seeds and picking berries. Stone Age man also learned that his hunting bands could drive big carnivores away from their kills with stone-tipped spears, then feasting on meat they couldn't catch themselves. Wondrously, the ice disappeared. The earth's climate warmed more than 10 degrees C. Chicago, for example, shifted from mile-thick glacier to sunny Corn Belt. That's certainly climate change in my book. And since the big ice sheets have been gone, the earth's climate has indeed been relatively stable. Mostly, the temperatures over the last ten millennia have ranged up and down about 2–4 degrees C at the latitude of Paris or Washington. The major variations have been the moderate 1,500-year Dansgaard-Oeschger climate cycles documented in the ice layers and seabed sediments. Our Modern Warming is apparently the sixth such warming cycle in 10,000 years. The warmest of the recent warming cycles began 9,000 years ago, and was 2.5 degrees warmer than today. Humans probably continued their traditional hunting and gathering in the first years after the ice receded. But in the Middle East of 9,000 years ago, the Stone Age hunters apparently began to notice recurring seasonal crops of wild cereals. At first, they probably gathered some of the grain to eat, and perhaps some more to lure sheep near enough for killing. But as human numbers expanded under the basking sun, there may not always have been enough wild game in the Judean hills to feed everybody. The idea of deliberately planting more of the cereal seeds, domesticating livestock and shifting their diets more heavily to grain would gradually have become attractive. And, humans of 10,000 years ago were fully as intelligent, curious, and anxious to survive as we are today. Once the idea of controlling food production ignited, the rest is history. Farmers have taken over every part of the world that can readily grow crops, and even some difficult eco-systems that are right on the margin, such as Asia's terraced mountainside rice paddies.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Inventor finds right spin on turbine
It's a water turbine, but different than existing technology that has yet to succeed commercially in converting the force of sea currents into pollution-free electricity. Geoff Greene's water turbine is a different animal. He uses the force of falling water inside the blades to turn the turbine, which is sealed in the middle of the structure. Picture a bicycle wheel. At the top of each hollow spoke is a tank of water contained within the tire. As the wheel turns and a tank reaches the top, gravity sends the water gushing down the spoke to the center of the wheel. The torrent of water within this closed system continuously spins the turbine. Greene's valve system re-circulates the water from one tank to the next. A 100-foot or 250-foot-diameter wheel slowly turned by an ocean current would be too powerful for typical gearing needed to convert the power into fast-spinning turbine. Too much torque, too much stress. But Greene's idea is "a unique way of getting power from the flowing fluid (the ocean current) to the electrical generation device," Hochstein said. "It's not the usual gear box and transmission shaft. A different kind of scheme. It avoids some mechanical power transmission problems." And there's a nine-foot-tall spinning wheel made of half-inch plastic pipes, with eight spokes and water jugs affixed at the outside end of each spoke. This is Greene's model for the water turbine. Nearby is his "hydro-channel." It looks like a long fish tank. He flips a switch to pump a water current through the tank. The water spins a small set of blades, anchored by cables. With the real water turbine, cables will keep the structure from rising to the top. The blades, made of light concrete, will actually float, Greene said. The real thing may be 100 feet in diameter to start, and subsequent ones as large as 250 feet. "If you double the size, you quadruple the power," said Hochstein. "In this case, bigger is a lot better." The larger the wheel is, the more workable the invention is, said Greg Maxted, a mechanical engineer who has a business and teaches at Southwest Tennessee Community College. He also looked at Greene's work and pronounced it "very, very novel."
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
USM kit to help lower cancer risks from UV rays
Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has unveiled a special kit that can help lower skin and eye cancer risks due to ultraviolet (UV) ray. The new invention comes in the form of the nano-UV Coating for umbrellas, shades and polymer-based textile for outdoor use. The head researcher of the NanoZT-UV coating kit, Dr Shahrom Mahmud from the Physics School, said a spray of the kit's nano zinc oxide and polymer solution would turn normal umbrellas, shades, and canopies into UV-blocking products. He said the sprayed on NanoZT-UV layer would only allow 0.1 per cent of UV rays, compared to other UV textiles that allowed one to two per cent of UV rays to penetrate. "It is the best solution so far, as the nano zinc oxide in the coating kit is the best UV blocking agent that is also bio-safe. "Just one spray is enough to last you a whole year," he said during a Press Conference at USM yesterday. The kit, Shahrom said, cost RM10 per unit and was enough to spray and cover three umbrellas. He said the solution also made UV umbrellas cheaper than those sold in the market for about RM24 each.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Obedience
Peter Watts may serve two years for failing to promptly obey a customs officer. Peter Watts was convicted of obstruction for getting out of his car at a US Border crossing and asking what was going on, then not complying fast enough when he was told to get back in the car. He faces up to two years in jail. The job of the jury was to decide whether Mr. Watts "obstructed/resisted" the custom officials. Assault was not one of the charges. What it boiled down to was Mr. Watts did not follow the instructions of the customs agents. Period. He was not violent, he was not intimidating, he was not stopping them from searching his car. He did, however, refuse to follow the commands by his non compliance. He's not a bad man by any stretch of the imagination. The customs agents escalted the situation with sarcasm and miscommunication. Unfortunately, we were not asked to convict those agents with a crime, although, in my opinion, they did commit offenses against Mr. Watts. Two wrongs don't make a right, so we had to follow the instructions as set forth to us by the judge. That's apparently the statute: if you don't comply fast enough with a customs officer, he can beat you, gas you, jail you and then imprison you for two years. This isn't about safety, it isn't about security, it isn't about the rule of law. It's about obedience. Authoritarianism is a disease of the mind. It criminalizes the act of asking "why?" It is the obedience-sickness that turns good people into perpetrators and victims of atrocities great and small.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Forgiving The Children
The previous pope did it, why doesn't Pope Ratzo? This news story is from 2002: Pope Forgives Molested Children. Calling forgiveness "one of the highest virtues taught to us by Jesus," Pope John Paul II issued a papal decree Monday absolving priest-molested children of all sin.

"Though grave and terrible sins have been committed, our Lord teaches us to turn the other cheek and forgive those who sin against us," said the pope, reading a prepared statement from a balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square. "That is why, despite the terrible wrongs they have committed, the church must move on and forgive these children for their misdeeds." "As Jesus said, 'Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,'" the pope continued.
"We must send a clear message to these hundreds-perhaps thousands-of children whose sinful ways have tempted so many of the church's servants into lustful violation of their holy vows of celibacy. The church forgives them for their transgressions and looks upon them not with intolerance, but compassion."

Back in those days, the Catholic Church was much more in touch with the real world.
Question: Can the Pope be fired? - No. The Code of Canon Law has no provision that allows a pope's removal from office- for any reason, even poor health or psychological trauma. That's because, according to church law, there is no higher authority than the pope: He "possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely." A pope may resign, but his resignation must be "made freely," and he doesn't have to tender his resignation to any particular authority. The last time that happened was in 1415, Pope Gregory XII. Can the pope face prosecution under secular law? No. The pope is immune from prosecution under the local laws of the Vatican. It's also a principle of customary international law that heads of state enjoy immunity from prosecution. That includes the pope, who is both the head of the church and the head of Vatican City. (They live in their own little world. - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Reality is a quantum computer
Physicist Vlatko Vedral explains to Aleks Krotoski why he believes the fundamental stuff of the universe is information and how he hopes that one day everything will be explained in this way. / Some physicists go as far as suggesting that the universe isn't like a computer, but rather it is a computer. One such person is Vlatko Vedral, a professor of quantum information science at Oxford University. Vedral has just published a new non-technical book about this mindbending field of inquiry, titled Decoding Reality: The Universe as Quantum Information.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Science answers Morality Questions
Why science can answer your moral questions much better than any religion. Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can -- and should -- be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life. Sam Harris' best-selling books argue that religion is ruinous and, worse, stupid -- and that questioning religious faith is necessary to save our civilization.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Relax and rest with the Mexistim
What is a Mexistim Polarity Cycler? The Mexistim is based on Lee Crocks 2nd version of the 'Energy Cleaner'. The 2nd version was used with good results on over 10,000 people according to the inventor. I wrote about it and received emails from people asking if I could build a Mexistim for them as they couldn't afford Lee's $3,000 units (at the time of the original article), though he was last selling them for $1,000. So I decided I could build them much cheaper ($230US) on a per order basis. No big warehouse or store of parts, just my little workshop and my own timer design. Others have copied my Mexistim design, used my articles to sell their versions and refer to their versions as 'similar to the Mexistim', but my Mexistim is based on the 2nd design which had so many reports of beneficial experiences. It has helped me now for over 8 years.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
If You Don't Tie Our Hands, We Will Keep Stealing
The Jefferson Area Tea Party met with Democrat Congressman Tom Perriello (Virginia CD-05) on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 in Washington, D.C. The topic was Health Care reform and Tom's position on the pending bill. In this video, Congressman Perriello admits that Congress will "steal" unless you "tie our hands."
- Full Article Source

Rules? We make'em up as we go along!
We have to PASS the bill before you can find out whats in it

03/23/10 -
Switzerland Passes Violent Games Ban
"Sadly, Switzerland has now passed the law that paves the way for an outright ban on violent video games in the country. The full implications of the ruling will not be known until the government reveals the exact requirements that will be laid down by the new legislation – a decision that has not yet been made. What is certain though is that the Swiss authorities have now obtained the power to introduce any measures they see fit. The likeliest outcome seems to be an outright ban on the production, distribution and sale of any games deemed to be unsuitable – most likely anything with either a PEGI 16+ or PEGI 18+ certificate."
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
If ET Calls, Who Speaks For Humanity?
"Who speaks for humankind if ET calls on us? Paul Davies, chairman of the SETI Post-Detection Taskgroup, is a likely ambassador. But Allen Tough founded the Invitation to ETI Web site, which encourages ET to make contact via email (and also strongly discourages humans from impersonating ET). But an individual in the UK got over some of the hurdles designed to weed out hoaxers, before finally throwing in the towel." / Although you may find it tempting, we do ask human visitors to this site to kindly refrain from impersonating ETI. When this happens, it does take up time that we could spend on the search for real Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Please, if you do wish to contact us, do ETI a favor, and use the alternate form we have provided for human responses.
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Scientists "Print" Human Vein With 3D Printer
"3D Printing technology has recently leapt into a new realm — we've seen printers that can create entire buildings out of stone, delicious meals out of simple ingredients, and now — perhaps weirdest and coolest of them all — a printer that can build body parts from cells!"
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Where Were You When the Republic Died?
In November 2008, Americans elected a socialist as their president. In March 2010, they woke up stunned to find themselves living in a socialist country. Health insurers -- once private companies -- are now organs of the federal government. Every citizen is a ward of the state, which can now compel you to have insurance, punish you if you don't; determine if your insurance is acceptable, punish you if it isn't. Thousands of new federal bureaucrats will soon spill from the D.C. Beltway and flood the country, scrutinizing our finances to verify compliance with this new law. A government that grants itself this kind of power over us can conceivably do anything to us. For our own good, of course. Such a country is in no meaningful sense "free." And this is only the beginning. Liberals are salivating in contemplation of all the fanciful window trimmings that can in the future be hung from this legislative framework. Public option will soon appear as prelude to single payer, as was the intent all along. Soon, Americans won't even have the illusion of a choice -- the government will move from subsidizer to provider, and it will be the only game in town. There's a reason why Democrats were desperate to ram this through at any cost -- once enacted, such things are all but perpetual. Former freedom-loving peoples begin to tell themselves that it's really not so bad. Sure, government is forcing you to eat state-approved gruel, but hey, at least they hold the spoon, and they even pour a little sugar on top when you're good. The worst part of watching the proceedings unfold on Sunday was the endless stream of commentators and pundits calmly discussing this bill as if it were just one more piece of bad legislation that we will have to live under. In fact, what has transpired is nothing less than an overthrow of the old Constitutional order. In 1776, the American Republic boldly announced its birth with the Declaration of Independence. In 2010, it quietly expired with a declaration of dependence -- on government, on entitlement, and on the Democratic party. - (Thanks to Ken for this headsup. - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
People In Power Make Better Liars
"MSNBC is reporting that a Columbia Business School study shows those who hold power over others make better liars. According to one of the study's coauthors, 'It just doesn't hurt them as much to do it.' For the average liar, she said, the act of lying elicits negative emotions, physiological stress and the fear of getting caught in a lie. As a result, she added, liars will often send out cues that they are lying by doing things like fidgeting in a chair or changing the rate of their speech. But for the powerful, the impact is very different: 'Power, it seems, enhances the same emotional, cognitive, and physiological systems that lie-telling depletes. People with power enjoy positive emotions, increases in cognitive function, and physiological resilience such as lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Thus, holding power over others might make it easier for people to tell lies.'"
- Full Article Source

03/23/10 -
Most people are in class TO LEARN
A student was arrested after throwing a waterbottle at another student, threatening the class and teacher and resisting arrest after campus police asked her 3 times to leave with them.
- Full Article Source

03/22/10 -
About Lee Crocks' health retreat/clinic in Caldwell
I received an email from Judy (and Jack) Robinson, one of Lee's daughters, saying;

"We are shutting down his clinic."
- Email

03/19-22/10 -
Lee Crock, R.I.P.
CALDWELL - Leander E. Crock, 85, of Caldwell, Ohio, passed away Tuesday (March 16, 2010) at the Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. He was born in Noble County, Ohio, a son of the late Roman and Sophia Schafer Crock. Lee is survived by his wife, Bonnie Crock of the home, whom he married May of 1991; daughters, Judy (Jack) Robinson and Vickie Sawyer, all of Caldwell; sons, Don (Julie) Crock, Dennis (Thomasina) Crock, Edward (Kathy) Crock and Dan (Vanessa) Sawyer, all of Caldwell and extended family.

Friends will be received Friday (March 19, 2010) from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. at the Chandler Funeral Home, 609 West St., Caldwell, Ohio 43724, with a vigil service at 8 p.m. A Mass of Christian burial will be held Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary's of the Immaculate Conception Church in Fulda with the Rev. Father Thomas Hamm serving as celebrant. Burial will follow in the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery, where the Noble County Veteran Service Organizations will conduct military graveside services.
The family requests those wishing to make memorial contributions consider his favorite charity, Feed The Children, P.O. Box 36, Oklahoma City, Okla. 73101-0036. To send a sympathy card or leave words of comfort for the family, please visit the funeral home's Web site at www.ChandlerFuneralHome.net .
Lee is known to us as the inventor of the Crock Energy Cleaner/Stimulator which Lee developed as an electronic model of Reiki healing techniques. Thousands of people have found relief through the use of his Energy Cleaner and by visiting his health retreat in Caldwell. Lee Crock will be missed. - (Thanks to Denise Neal for letting us know about this. - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/20/10 -
Piezo Crystals Harness Sound To Generate Hydrogen
"Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have discovered that a mix of zinc oxide crystals, water, and noise pollution can efficiently produce hydrogen without the need for a dirty catalyst like oil. To generate the clean hydrogen, researchers produced a new type of zinc oxide crystals that absorb vibrations when placed in water. The vibrations cause the crystals to develop areas with strong positive and negative charges — a reaction that rips the surrounding water molecules and releases hydrogen and oxygen. The mechanism, dubbed the piezoelectrochemical effect, converts 18% of energy from vibrations into hydrogen gas (compared to 10% from conventional piezoelectric materials), and since any vibration can produce the effect, the system could one day be used to generate power from anything that produces noise — cars whizzing by on the highway, crashing waves in the ocean, or planes landing at an airport."
- Full Article Source

03/20/10 -
Quad-copter controlled with voice commands
In the video above you’ll see two of our favorite things combined, a quad-copter that is voice controlled. The robot responds to natural language so you can tell it to “take off and fly forward six feet”, rather than rely on a cryptic command set. The demonstration shows both an iPhone and a headset used as the input microphone. Language is parsed by a computer and the resulting commands sent to the four-rotor UAV. This makes us think of the Y.T.’s robot-aided assault in Snow Crash. Perhaps our inventions strive to achieve the fiction that came before it. / This autonomous helicopter has been equipped with voice activation technology. A user can give voice commands to the helicopter and the helicopter is able to respond or navigate to a requested location. More info here: http://du.tkollar.com/
- Full Article Source

03/20/10 -
Cro Magnon skull shows that our brains have shrunk
A new replica of an early modern human brain has provided further evidence for the theory that the human brain has been shrinking. The skull belonged to an elderly Cro Magnon man, whose skeleton is called Cro Magnon 1. The entire skeleton was discovered in 1868 in the Cro Magnon cave in Dordogne, France, and has since become one of the most famous Upper Palaeolithic skeletons. Using new technology, researchers have produced a replica of the 28,000-year-old brain and found that it is about 15-20% larger than our brains. The finding doesn’t suggest that humans today are less intelligent than earlier humans. Although previous studies have found a very small relationship between brain size and intelligence, many other factors affect brain intelligence. For instance, different parts of the brain have different functions. The researchers found that the Cro Magnon brain appears to have had a smaller cerebellum - the brain region linked to motor control and language - than our brains today. The researchers explain that this finding shows that some parts of the brain are more “compressible” than others, while other regions seem to provide a benefit by growing larger. Although scientists don’t know for sure why our overall brains are shrinking, some researchers hypothesize that our brains are becoming more efficient as they grow smaller. Having a large brain comes at a cost, so smaller brains have an advantage since they enable the body to use the extra energy for other purposes. On the other hand, perhaps a large skull had certain advantages for earlier people.
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03/20/10 -
obama Administration Withholds FoIA Requests More Often Than bush's
"Agencies under the Obama administration cite security provisions to withhold information more often than they did under the Bush administration. For example, the 'deliberative process' exemption of the Freedom of Information Act was used 70,779 times in 2009, up from the 47,395 of 2008. Amusingly, the Associated Press has been waiting three months for the government to deliver records on its own Open Government Directive." / Among the most frequently cited reasons for keeping records secret: one that Obama specifically told agencies to stop using so frequently. The Freedom of Information Act exception, known as the "deliberative process" exemption, lets the government withhold records that describe its decision-making behind the scenes. Other exemptions cover information on national defense and foreign relations, internal agency rules and practices, trade secrets, personal privacy, law enforcement proceedings, supervision of financial institutions and geological information on wells. One, known as Exemption 3, covers dozens of types of information that Congress shielded from disclosure when passing other laws. In provisions often vaguely worded and buried deep in legislation, Congress has granted an array of special protection over the years: information related to grand jury investigations, additives in cigarettes, juvenile arrest records, the identities of people applying restricted-use pesticides to their crops, and the locations of historically significant caves. All can be legally withheld from the public.
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03/20/10 -
High-Tech Research Moving From US To China
"The NY Times reports that American companies like Applied Materials are moving their research facilities and engineers to China as the country develops a high-tech economy that increasingly competes directly with the United States. Applied Materials set up its latest solar research labs in China after estimating that China would be producing two-thirds of the world's solar panels by the end of this year and their chief technology officer, Mark R. Pinto, is the first CTO of a major American tech company to move to China. 'We're obviously not giving up on the US,' says Pinto. 'China needs more electricity. It's as simple as that.' Western companies are also attracted to China's huge reservoirs of cheap, highly skilled engineers and the subsidies offered by many Chinese cities and regions, particularly for green energy companies. Applied Materials decided to build their new $250 million research facility in Xi'an after the city government sold them a 75-year land lease at a deep discount and is reimbursing the company for roughly a quarter of the lab complex's operating costs for five years."
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03/20/10 -
Company Sued, Loses For Not Using Patented Tech
"A man was recently awarded $1.5M in a jury trial after his hand was injured by a Ryobi table saw. The saw did not include the patented 'Saw Stop' technology that the plaintiff argued would have prevented all the problems." 60 similar cases have now been filed nationwide. TechDirt makes the argument that this jury decision is completely crazy: "If the government is going to require companies to use a patented technology, it seems that the only reasonable solution is to remove the patent on it and allow competition in the market place." If the decision stands, not only will the price of table saws go way up, but other hungry patent-holders will probably get a gleam in their eye.
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03/20/10 -
China Facing Major Water Shortage as Their Economy Grows
A bigger economy means more factories and power plants, all prodigious users of water for processing and cooling. Big cities are getting bigger, using more drinking, shower and sewage water. People are eating better, and growing more food requires more water. They crave entertainment, too; the Beijing area has 100 golf courses and a dozen ski resorts with man-made snow. The result has been a scramble for water that is pitting downstream communities against upstream ones, farmers against factories, and people concerned about the country’s environment against those worried that water shortages might be the mighty Chinese economy’s Achilles’ heel. Unlike oil needs, which can be supplemented with imports, water needs pose a much more intractable threat to China’s rise. “China is facing two prominent challenges: water shortages and pollution,” said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based group. On top of that, “what’s not receiving attention is the destruction of the river ecosystem, which I think will have long-term effects on our water resources.” The water diversion project, inspired by a 1952 suggestion by Mao Zedong, would have siphoned off about 5 percent of the Yangtze River’s water volume, a massive amount equal to six times the crude oil consumed worldwide. The plan involved three routes, and official cost estimates have run as high as $75 billion. Two of the routes — in the eastern and central parts of the country — are moving ahead, though the central one is well behind schedule.
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03/20/10 -
The End of Prisons? – Alternatives to Incarceration
The U.S. currently boasts the highest rate of incarceration of any country at any time in history, a full 25 percent of the world’s prison population. We also have the greatest number of laws of any country at any time in history, laws created by nearly 90,000 separate governmental entities. This spaghetti mess of rules and regulation is so complicated that virtually any person can get tripped up by them. One simple mistake may very well result in incarceration, and it goes downhill from there. Incarceration is a system that breeds failure. On the prisoner level, an incoming prisoner is instantly immersed in an “us-vs-them” mindset as their surrounding community is transformed into the worst of all possible social circles. On the operational level, success in the prison industry is not measured by how many lives have been improved, but rather on occupancy levels, the number of prison incidents and escape attempts, and how well the budget is managed. Fact is that people coming out of the system are worse than when they went in, and virtually all of them will eventually make it back into society. There are no ways of measuring the toll it takes on society and on an individual level, the relationships it severs, the dreams it shatters, the cost of opportunities lost. Individuals who enter the prison system lose their jobs and their ability to earn an income. The spillover effect is severe. In most instances it has major repercussions on their spouse, their children, parents, siblings, and friends. For the victims it offers little resolution. Each imprisonment creates a blast zone of destruction that is difficult to recover from.

Restorative Justice is one such approach where offenders are brought into the same room with the people they harmed and encouraged to take responsibility for their actions. Sometimes they agree to repair or pay for the damage, return stolen money, or perform community service. In Longmont, Chief of Police Mike Butler has been a pioneer in Restorative Justice techniques, applying it in more than 1,200 cases with an amazing 90 percent success rate. “We work with people before the lawyers get involved and before they enter the courts,” says Butler. “By doing this, we have been able to eliminate most of the costs and give the offenders a reasonable shot at turning their life around.” These offenders are given a chance to meet with their victims and community members in a respectful process where they can learn the full impact of their crime and agree to repair their harm. On average 90 percent complete their agreements and are welcomed back to the community. Its a far different model than the old school idea of just “lock ‘em up!”

The average re-arrest rate for offenders who participate in Longmont’s restorative justice program is 10 percent. Compare that to the nearly 70 percent re-arrest rate for the national penal system. According to participant feedback data, every group engaged in the Longmont program – including victims, offenders, parents and community members – reported over 95 percent satisfaction with their restorative justice experience. In restorative justice, because victims are heard and offenders repair the harm of their crime, they become higher functioning citizens able to work and make a contribution to their community, including paying their share of taxes. So why hasn’t Restorative Justice caught on in a big way yet? My guess is that the current prison system has a lot of inertia and any changes will require the buy-in from everyone currently working inside the system. Barring any legislative changes, its just easier to maintain the status quo.
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03/20/10 -
A New Way to Buy and Sell Ideas
Nathan Myhrvold's company Intellectual Ventures is trying to create a capital market for patents, inventions and intellectual property, one that would use the venture capital and private equity markets as a model. Is Myhrvold's brave new world of investment firms trading the rights to a better mousetrap feasible, or even ethical? Amar Bhidé, author of The Venturesome Economy, is a high profile critic of Myhrvold's vision. Invention, to him, is akin to writing a book: what if authors had to buy licensing rights for every idea they cited, instead of simply giving credit in the footnotes? Many of the best new products, he argues, are combinations of countless ideas, some patentable, some not. A patent attorney writing under the pseudonym "Sawyer" laments:

"Mr. Myhrvold wants to create an entire economic category based on payments to entities that don't build, produce, sell, etc, any products, or create anything of value (i.e., that don't innovate, at least in any useful way that advances human progress), in exchange for not being sued on exclusionary patent rights."

In the software patent world, shell entities (often called "patent trolls") backed by investment funds already bring dozens of lawsuits against innovators each year. They target start-ups as well as technology giants like Google, Apple, and Microsoft, hoping to win money in battles over IP. Sawyer writes:

"What we have, then, is a net outflow, on a yearly basis, of at least several hundred million dollars, from technology companies who "make stuff" and unquestionably innovate, to speculators and investors who don't."

Myhrvold assures us the exact opposite will occur: that his system will create a vigorous market in IP rights and solve an epidemic of under-invention. Myhrvold confidently predicts that competition between investment funds to buy intellectual property from inventors, bundle it, and sell it to buyers who know how to exploit it will support increased output from innovators.
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03/20/10 -
At Last, ATM Skimming is History
New Australian invention offers a revolutionary PIN system, called FlexiPIN that makes ATMs Skim Proof and Online Banking secure. Personal Identification Number (PIN) is a static security code, while FlexiPIN changes. In fact FlexiPIN changes automatically and neither an additional device nor a list of PINs are involved. Skimming, computer viruses and "phishing" emails are no longer threats. Complex software programming resulted in having a user friendly application that will not only able to create a completely new style of PIN, but allows users to design their own FlexiPIN on a computer screen whether be online or in a bank. Instead of having a PIN with 4 to 6 digits to memorise, with FlexiPIN, you only need to remember two numbers and a simple formula which gives you the additional numbers. As with old fashion PINs, both the computer and you have to memorise the same 4-6 digits and when you key in your PIN, the computer authenticates by matching the two. Interestingly with FlexiPIN, the computer doesn’t store your access code, but knows the arrangement you made and will work out your FlexiPIN when you press enter. Similarly, you will have to work out in your head your FlexiPIN before you press enter. Can you add two small numbers together? If yes, FlexiPIN and you have a future, a much safer future with regards to accessing funds and information. Setting up FlexiPIN is easy. First you select your two favourite numbers. Secondly, choose from a selection of formulas and give your usage preference. That’s it, but like with all new things, this will take a few logons to get used to”. You could even do this: “Go to the ATM for me, here is my card and PIN”. Your account would be safe, as the same PIN will not work in the future. Same goes for computer viruses, the keystrokes they record and transmit will not be any value in the future.
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03/20/10 -
Good Vibrations Promise Cheap Wind Power
Shawn Frayne devised the Windbelt, which doesn't require lots of space, wind, or money. The system generates power from the vibrations created when even a tiny amount of wind hits a strip of material connected to a magnet. Windbelt isn't exactly a new invention—it was named by Popular Mechanics for its 2007 Breakthrough Awards—but Frayne was able to create a start-up based on the technology (Humdinger Wind Energy LLC). Three variants of different sizes are scheduled for a demo within this year. The microWindbelt is a 5" x 1" self-contained unit that generates enough power for sensors or small electronics, while the one-meter long Windcell produces 3 to 5 watts of power. The large-scale Windcell panel, built by bunching Windcells together, will produce 100 watts and cost $1 for every square meter taken up. That's more than enough power to drive a netbook. A Windbelt still requires sufficient wind to for maximum generation (6m/s or 13mph), but the system can still create power at lower wind speeds.
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03/20/10 -
Robotic cognitive spy cam tips up
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) unveils details about its latest invention; a self guided drone camera which can get around by itself and beam back visual intelligence from behind enemy lines. This latest project, dubbed "The Mind's Eye," is the closest thing to an intelligence gathering robot yet, and the agency hopes it will come in especially handy in replacing real life human spies, who are notorious for their dry martini habits, womanizing, fast cars and casino antics, which makes their information all the more fallible. But for those thinking "big deal, it's just a camera on wheels," well, you'd be wrong. Because not only can Mind's Eye film a scene, it can also understand what is going on and even describe it back to its human controllers.
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03/20/10 -
Scoot-Along Lawn-Mower Lazier Than it Seems
The Lawn Mower Scooter has an electric motor which drives both the blades and the scooter itself. As you stand on the rear footplate and desperately try not to lose your balance, the mower chugs forward, filling the grass-box until the trimmings come into view through the window on top. At this point, you will actually have to use some energy, perhaps calling one of the kids over to empty the box. It’s a rather flimsy-looking design, and disappointing that it isn’t more human-powered. The Lawn Mower Scooter currently only exists in the garden seen above, and in the fevered, neat-freak mind of the inventor Vicky Petihovski.
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03/20/10 -
Windpipe transplant success in UK child
A 10-year-old British boy has become the first child to undergo a windpipe transplant with an organ crafted from his own stem cells. It is hoped that using the boy's own tissue in the nine-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital will cut the risk of rejection. The world's first tissue-engineered windpipe transplant was done in Spain in 2008 but with a shorter graft. Doctors say the boy is doing well and breathing normally. Doctors had previously operated to expand his airway but in November last year he suffered complications from erosion of a metal stent in his windpipe or trachea. In order to build him a new airway, doctors took a donor trachea, stripped it down to the collagen scaffolding, and then injected stem cells taken from his bone marrow. The organ was then implanted in the boy and over the next month, doctors expect the stem cells to transform into specialised cells which form the inside and outside of the trachea.
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03/20/10 -
Consumer Goods Suck Up Surprising Amounts of Water
Humans need water to live, but they tend to take the cheap commodity for granted, especially in industry. The $1 bag of refined sugar in many American kitchens requires more than 283 gallons of water to produce. A $20 bag of dog food takes more than 4,000 gallons of water to make, in a show of how industry and the world can take water for granted.
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03/20/10 -
Britain ‘four meals away from anarchy’
MI5’s maxim is that society is “four meals away from anarchy”. In other words, the security agency believes that Britain could be quickly reduced to large-scale disorder, including looting and rioting in the event of a catastrophe that stops the supply of food. The maxim will provoke debate over whether MI5 is over-egging the threat, partly to justify its rapidly growing budget. It also opens a wider question as to whether civilised societies could so quickly revert to primitive behaviour. MI5 — whose motto is “regnum defende”, defend the realm — uses the “four meals” rule to assess the threat levels from attacks on strategic installations, such as computer networks and power stations; natural disasters; or widespread strikes and civil disobedience.
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03/20/10 -
Power Walking - literally
In a recent paper in the journal Nano Letters, scientists report that they have developed an innovative rubber chip that has the ability to harvest energy from motions such as walking, running, and breathing and convert it into a power source. "It opens up a lot of possibilities," says Caltech graduate student Habib Ahmad, a coauthor on the paper. "We all dissipate energy as we move our bodies around, and conceivably that energy could be put to work charging small electronic devices like an iPod or a cell phone." The key to this development is a class of materials known as piezoelectrics, which are substances—chiefly crystalline and ceramic—that respond to stress or strain by producing a charge, essentially converting mechanical energy to electrical energy. ("Piezo" derives from a Greek word, meaning to squeeze or exert pressure.) “What made this latest result particularly exciting," says Ahmad, "is that a piezoelectric material sitting on a rubber substrate is malleable enough to be worn with relative comfort in your shoe or like a sweatband around your arm.” And because PZT generates energy nearly 100 times more effectively than quartz, “it’s got the capacity to take advantage of the body’s natural motions throughout the day.” “At the moment, we’ve basically got a one-centimeter chip with about 1,000 wires packed together,” Ahmad says. “That’s a very efficient use of space, but the energy that’s produced is still relatively minimal. But there’s no reason, technically speaking, why this can’t be scaled up to a surface area on the order of 2 by 2 inches,” at which point you can start looking at real-world applications.
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03/20/10 -
How going green may make you mean
According to a study, when people feel they have been morally virtuous by saving the planet through their purchases of organic baby food, for example, it leads to the "licensing [of] selfish and morally questionable behaviour", otherwise known as "moral balancing" or "compensatory ethics". Do Green Products Make Us Better People is published in the latest edition of the journal Psychological Science. Its authors, Canadian psychologists Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong, argue that people who wear what they call the "halo of green consumerism" are less likely to be kind to others, and more likely to cheat and steal. "Virtuous acts can license subsequent asocial and unethical behaviours," they write.
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03/20/10 -
The Dropout Economy
Middle-class kids are taught from an early age that they should work hard and finish school. Yet 3 out of 10 students dropped out of high school as recently as 2006, and less than a third of young people have finished college. Many economists attribute the sluggish wage growth in the U.S. to educational stagnation, which is one reason politicians of every stripe call for doubling or tripling the number of college graduates. But what if the millions of so-called dropouts are onto something? As conventional high schools and colleges prepare the next generation for jobs that won't exist, we're on the cusp of a dropout revolution, one that will spark an era of experimentation in new ways to learn and new ways to live. It's important to keep in mind that behavior that seems irrational from a middle-class perspective is perfectly rational in the face of straitened circumstances. People who feel obsolete in today's information economy will be joined by millions more in the emerging post-information economy, in which routine professional work and even some high-end services will be more cheaply performed overseas or by machines. This doesn't mean that work will vanish. It does mean, however, that it will take a new and unfamiliar form.
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03/20/10 -
Delhi Unveils Giant Public Air Freshener To Scrub Atmosphere
Officials in Delhi have unveiled a radical solution to tackle the increasingly noxious smog hanging over the city: a giant public air freshener that scrubs the atmosphere clean. The seven-tonne Systemlife Citta costs about 25 million rupees (£357,000). It sucks in 10,000 cubic metres of dirty air an hour, subjects it to a filtering process, and then emits clean air… A brown haze often lingers over the Indian capital — a smudgy cloud linked by analysts to increasing rates of asthma. Only in Cairo is the air grimier. Another Indian city, Calcutta, is in third place. Globally, air pollution claims about two million lives a year, according to the World Health Organisation.
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03/20/10 -
Humans could regrow body parts like some amphibians
Regrowing amputated limbs, broken backs and even damaged brains could one day be a reality after scientists discovered a gene that is key to the almost magical ability. Researchers have found that the gene p21 appears to block the healing power still enjoyed by some creatures including amphibians but lost through evolution to all other animals. By turning off p21, the process can be miraculously switched back on. Unlike typical mammals, which heal wounds by forming a scar, these mice begin by forming a blastema, a structure associated with rapid cell growth. According to the Wistar researchers, the loss of p21 causes the cells of these mice to behave more like regenerating embryonic stem cells rather than adult mammalian cells. This means they act as if they creating rather than mending the body. They turned off the gene in mice which had damaged ears and they regrew them. While they say it is early days, there is nothing theoretically different about applying the same process to humans.
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03/20/10 -
You can keep your jetpack. I have a rocketship...and for $200k
At $200,000, a flight to the edge of space is cheap. That’s well within the budget for a lot of people on this planet. Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic will probably be the first company to launch private citizens into space. They have already sold 300 seats and have deposited $39 million in advance sales! At the meeting, Steven Attenborough with VG said that they expect Space Ship 2 to do a "drop test" (literally be hoisted up to 50,000 feet and dropped by an airplane for a test landing) in the fall of 2010, and undergo its first power tests by the end of the year. Humans will then be loaded up and sent into space in 2011. That’s next year. People always lament that we’re past the year 2000 and we still don’t have flying cars. Personally, I don’t trust 95% of the people driving on the ground, let alone in the air. But it doesn’t matter, because the future is here. It’s now. Next year, people will be flying into space. Into space. This is beyond cool. This is fantastic!
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03/20/10 -
Pregnancy the Fountain of Youth?
For the first time in the world, Jerusalem researchers have discovered that pregnancy has the remarkable ability to promote the regeneration in elderly mice of damaged livers and muscles. They have also managed to mimic the state of pregnancy using specific molecules that trigger the regeneration and growth of livers in older rodents. This basic new concept from Hadassah University Medical Center and the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School could eventually be relevant to other tissues and organs and lead to the ability to stimulate their regeneration in elderly, sick patients. The authors of that article had connected young mice to other young mice by uniting their blood vessels; old mice to old mice; and young mice to old mice (this procedure is called parabiosis). If a mouse was either young or old and attached to a young mouse – and it suffered liver damage – the connection via blood circulation led to regeneration of tissue in the damaged organ. In aging rodents and elderly people, regeneration of the liver and other tissue is slow or even impossible. Laufer said that when a young animal loses two-thirds of its liver, it can regenerate the lost tissue in a few days. But if it is old, half of the mice would die due to stress on the organ. Of those that survive, much less tissue would be regenerated. But if the mouse is older and pregnant, its tissue regenerates as if it were young. The regenerative capacity of tissue declines with age, and healing in response to injury is delayed, he said. This effect is observed in liver, skin, bones, blood vessels, nerves, muscles and other tissue. The reason is that ageing alters the function of many biological processes such as changes in growth factors, the accumulation of damage to DNA in the cells and the increase in oxygen free radicals in the cells. They learned that the repair mechanism was a kind of switch within the cells, and that it can be made to work with specific molecules (drugs) to stimulate and repair them. The significance of this, explained Laufer, “is that part of the liver can be removed from old animals, they can be given drugs and this will cause the remaining liver to regenerate as if they were pregnant but without actually being pregnant.”
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03/20/10 -
Cheap, Portable Negative Pressure Wound-Healing Device
Danielle Zurovcik and her collaborators hope the device, which costs about $3, will provide a way to improve care for patients after the emergency phase of relief efforts, including life- and limb-saving surgeries, has ended. Even after many of the emergency medical teams leave the disaster zone, the dangers of chronic wounds remain high. "My experience in Haiti and other major earthquakes is that after the acute medical response, such as amputating limbs and setting fractures, the major disease burden is wounds," says Robert Riviello, a trauma surgeon at Brigham and Women's, and Zurovcik's collaborator. Negative-pressure therapy decreases the need to change wound dressings from one to three times per day to once every few days, a major benefit when medical staff is in short supply. Negative-pressure devices, which act like a vacuum over the bandaged wound, have become a central part of wound therapy in the United States over the last decade. They speed healing up to threefold, depending on the type of wound, and in some cases eliminate the need for plastic surgery or skin grafts. A number of commercial versions are available in the U.S. and are used to treat burns and chronic wounds such as bed sores or diabetic foot ulcers. While scientists don't exactly know why this treatment accelerates the healing process, it likely helps by removing some of the fluid and bacteria that accumulates at the injury site and by increasing blood flow to the wound. The pressure itself may also help healing by bringing together the edges of the wound and delivering mechanical pressure, which has been shown to spur cell growth, says Dennis Orgill, a surgeon at Brigham and Women's who was not involved in the project.
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03/20/10 -
Scotland Aims to Be the “Saudi Arabia of Marine Energy”
Scotland is getting ready to capitalize on something the country has plenty of: fierce, stormy waves. About 750,000 Scottish homes expect to be powered by ocean technology by 2020, as the Scottish Government announced that 10 wave and tide power schemes capable of generating up to 1.2GW in total would be built around the Orkney islands and on the Pentland Firth on the northern coast of the Scottish mainland [Guardian]. The 10 projects will comprise the world’s first commercial-scale wave and tidal power scheme. With this project, Scotland plans to produce the same amount of clean energy as a small nuclear power station, and hopes to start on a path to becoming the “Saudi Arabia of marine energy.” Some of the strongest tidal currents in the world race around UK shores and there’s some of the highest energy in the waves that roll in from the Atlantic. And while wave power is, to an extent, dependent on the weather, tidal power has the tremendous advantage of being totally predictable [Channel 4]. It will cost about $7.6 billion in total to install and maintain the structures used to generate power from the strong waves and tides, and to transmit the energy back to land.
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03/17/10 -
Solar energy with jewel-like curtains on windows
Dyson heads the Center for Architecture Science and Ecology, or CASE, a research consortium that wants to turn office windows into multifaceted solar power generators. Their "integrated concentrating dynamic solar facade" consists of grids of clear pyramids that help focus the sun's rays to generate energy. It would essentially make buildings look as if they were draped in giant jeweled curtains. Each clear pyramid — with facets less than a foot square — has a lens to focus sunlight onto a tiny solar cell. The concentrated cells are designed to be more efficient in generating energy than traditional cells. And the pyramid modules rotate to track the sun. Pumped water keeps the solar cells cool to maximize efficiency. The cooling water also "captures" that waste heat for other uses, such as hot water or radiant heat for the building. The pattern of pyramids also would deflect and diffuse the sun's rays, meaning office workers with eastern exposures could work in natural light all morning instead of drawing the blinds against the glare. Windows will still provide a view, albeit one obstructed a bit where the patterns of pyramids are placed.
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03/17/10 -
Vanguard Sciences page updated
Cleaned it up and added a few new items to make them easier to find. Including two of my favorite science fantasy books, 'The Annotated Dweller on Two Planets' and 'The Annotated Etidorpha'. If you see pictures in your head when you read, like I do, you'll really get a kick out of these two books. Only $6 each for quick download and I can put them on CD if you want for a bit more. And if you are into interesting experiments, the Physics of Crystals DVD and the two LeBon books on CD will give you a lot of new ideas.
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03/17/10 -
Hydrokinetic Power Developers Face Hurdles in Bid to Tap Tides
(Would you believe SciAm spelled 'hurdles' as 'hurtles'? - JWD) - Renewable hydrokinetic power comes from a number of different sources, including the up-and-down motion of waves and the smooth flow of the tides caused by the sun and moon's gravitational forces on Earth's bodies of water. Tidal power is seen as a promising source of energy because of its predictability and from the potential to draw it from ocean currents and estuary channels that connect rivers with the sea. One of the more advanced tidal power operations in the U.S. is taking place in New York City's East River, where the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy (RITE) project has been testing windmill-like turbines since 2006. Led by Verdant Power, the project installed six windmill-like turbines—each five meters in diameter and anchored to the bottom of the East River, about nine meters in depth—in the water next to Roosevelt Island, a sliver of land 3.2 kilometers long by 240 meters wide in the river between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens. "Verdant went with a design that looks like a conventional wind machine—an open rotor with three blades," says Roger Bedard, an EPRI researcher who has studied water current–based energy generation. This was a calculated move, given that wind is very commercially mature in terms of renewable energy sources, he adds. After logging about 9,000 operational hours since being installed, all six original turbines were removed earlier this year and are being disassembled so Verdant can study their seals, bearings and other components for signs of wear. In the meantime, Verdant is developing its next-generation turbines that will be very different from their predecessors. Whereas Verdant's original tidal turbines sat anchored individually to the riverbed, looking something like a field of underwater windmills, the new design will have three turbines operating on a triangular frame positioned on (not anchored to) the bottom of the river. The company plans to place 10 triangular frames—a total of 30 turbines—on the river bottom. Each of the new turbines will produce 35 kilowatts of power at the rated water speed, meaning that the 10-frame installation should produce up to about one megawatt of power (enough to provide electricity to roughly 800 homes). This is, of course, if the company can get permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Verdant has been operating with a preliminary FERC license and by August plans to apply for its full license, which the company needs in order to produce, deliver and sell one megawatt of commercial power.
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03/17/10 -
Can You Live Under the Sea? (Nov, 1953)
Yes, the light in space around you is controlled, and so is the air you breathe. So accurate are the controls when the motors begin to purr and the actual descent begins, that you do not even notice the change. People used to swell up at the joints and die trying to do what you are doing now. Thanks to science, you are enjoying the thrill of vertical descent to the ocean floor in perfect comfort. The vision of almost unlimited periods of submersion has now become a fact, with the actual development of an apparatus which manufactures oxygen from purified sea water. The Navy has awarded a $150,000 contract to a company to build the device for use in submarines. With a continuous supply of freshened air, and fuel from an atomic pile, submarines will be able to remain submerged for two years at a time without having to surface at regular intervals to revive the atmosphere and charge batteries. The adaptation of these principles to other structures surely removes the aura of fantasy from the possibility of a city under the sea! Until fairly recently it was thought that the bottom limit for safe “skin diving” was thirty-five feet and that a diver going farther might come up with a terrible case of “the bends.” The cause was the rapidly increasing pressure of the water with increasing depth. Nineteenth-century British Admiralty researches placed the increased water pressure with each foot of descent at .44-pound per square inch. No human organism could stand it. In experiments at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Max Gene Nohl, Captain John Craig and others built their own laboratory pressure chamber and lived in it to test on their own bodies the possibility of breathing new atmospheres containing inert gases other than nitrogen. An oxygen-helium atmosphere was found best because helium did not “occlude” in the blood. Further research showed that the effects of carbon dioxide, which can accumulate disastrously in the lungs at depths of 200 feet and lower, are surmountable by proper pressurizing. Thus we have learned to avoid the so-called “rapture of the deep” from which less experienced divers have suffered —an intense and intoxicating dizziness which may cause the diver to ignore danger by going down still farther after his attack or even losing his breathing and other mechanical equipment and plunging to death. Some undersea men have advocated the fish’s breathing method for man—the inhalation of oxygen directly through the water by means of artificial gills. But the human organism cannot endure straight oxygen, and the technical problem of blending it with an inert gas such as helium has not yet been mastered. In certain deep ocean areas lies the primordial ooze, an eight- to ten-foot film thought to contain the makings of plastic materials. Portions of it are radioactive. Samples already entrapped prove that this layer is a rich source of oil. It is now believed that nearly half of the oil remaining in the earth is still stored in large pools beneath the oceans, within ancient coral or shell reefs and in “traps” under the sea floor. The triumph of undersea science is not one primarily of new gadgets and devices, although these are important, but of recognition of a set of laws apparently different from the natural laws which govern life on land. “Drop” an object undersea and it rises instead of falls. The force of gravity becomes the force of levity—the more so the deeper one goes, and very rapidly more so. The scientist is learning to use these phenomena to advantage—and in many respects his job is an easy one. Underwater lighting, for example, is much simpler than dry-land lighting because the heat generated by a burning electric bulb in an ordinary air medium is tremendous, whereas water cools the bulb so that a 1,000-watt bulb under the sea need be no larger than a 60-watt bulb on land. Man has conquered practically the final obstacles standing in the way of his new adventure.
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03/17/10 -
Robot mini space shuttle is go for April
The X-37 began life as a NASA project, intended perhaps to lead to a manned "lifeboat" re-entry craft for the crew of the International Space Station (ISS). In the event NASA did little more than get the ball rolling, and the ISS lifeboat is actually an ordinary Russian Soyuz capsule. But the X-37 project at Boeing carried on, passing from NASA into military hands and becoming a robotic spaceplane able to remain in orbit for substantial periods before re-entering the atmosphere and coming in for a runway landing automatically. It is now run by the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, which at one point hoped to make the first space flight as early as 2008. The X-37 has already flown in various in-atmosphere tests, sometimes being dropped from high in the stratosphere by the "White Knight" mothership used to carry the famous X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne suborbital rocketplane on the first stage of its journeys. The X-37B has the requirement to be on-orbit up to 270 days. Actual length for the first mission will depend on the meeting the mission objectives, which consists of checkout and performance characteristics of the spacecraft systems. Objectives of the OTV [Orbital Test Vehicle] program include space experimentation, risk reduction and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies. The X-37's cargo bay is believed to be a large-coffin sized 7' by 4'.
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03/17/10 -
Both Alcohol and Tobacco worse for you than Illegal Drugs
A scientifically compiled ranking of drugs, assembled by specialists in chemistry, health, and enforcement, published in a prestigious medical journal two years earlier. The list, printed as a chart with the unassuming title “Mean Harm Scores for 20 Substances,” ranked a set of common drugs, both legal and illegal, in order of their harmfulness - how addictive they were, how physically damaging, and how much they threatened society. Many drug specialists now consider it one of the most objective sources available on the actual harmfulness of different substances. That ranking showed, with numbers, what Nutt was fired for saying out loud: Overall, alcohol is far worse than many illegal drugs. So is tobacco. Smoking pot is less harmful than drinking, and LSD is less damaging yet. Nutt says he didn’t see himself as promoting drug use or trying to subvert the government. He was pressing the point that a government policy, especially a health-related one like a drug law, should be grounded in factual information. In doing so, he found himself caught in a crossfire that cost him the advisory post he had held for a decade.
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03/17/10 -
Eco-Friendly Homes Made From Recycled Plastic
Making use of a patented low energy cold process, Affresol converts the plastics into concrete, waterproof, fire retardant TPR panels. These panels form the load-bearing frame of the house and can support brick, block or stone, when it’s properly insulated and plastered. The roof is tiled with recycled materials. When the inhabitants abandon their living place – estimated life of the house is 60 years – the remnants of the TPR could be recycled again.
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03/17/10 -
NASA cuts back while India Invests 1.25 Billion in Space Programs
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will receive 57.78 billion rupees ($1.25 billion) for 2010 — a 38 percent increase over last year — under the budget approved Feb. 26 by India's Parliament. The bulk of the funding, some 21 billion rupees, will go to launch vehicle technology development, while satellite technology development will receive 10 billion rupees, a 45 percent increase over the 2009 level. ISRO's manned space program will receive 1.4 billion rupees for the new budget year, which begins April 1, to continue development of a space vehicle designed to carry two astronauts to a 250-mile (400-kilometer) orbit and return them safely to Earth, according to ISRO documents.
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03/17/10 -
Personal Rocket Copter
Swisscopters US in Arizona has built a lightweight rocket copter, the Dragonfly DF1, for which they’ve completed test flights (videos below) and obtained airworthy certificates. It’s powered by two rocket motors (made by Tecaeromex) placed on the end of each rotor. It runs on 70% hydrogen peroxide fuel. The rockets propel the rotors directly, reducing vibration and providing much improved stability. Best of all, because there is no motor torque, a tail rotor is only required to rotate the helicopter, not prevent it from death-spiraling into the ground. The basic idea has has been around since 1950 and the US Navy were even experimenting with them for use as helicopter backpacks. This copter has a 40 mph cruising speed and 115 mph max speed,and can travel 50 minutes at cruising speed on its standard tank (with an additional tank optional). It weighs 235 lb when empty and can carry a payload (including pilot and fuel) of up to 500 lb..
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03/17/10 -
Cape turbine failures during storm stir up concern
When the 100-foot-tall wind turbine at Bartlett's Ocean View Farm hurled one of its broken blades nearly 200 feet Jan. 18, it was a statistical anomaly. Wind energy experts claim, and statistics seem to show, failure rates are low. But when a second 100-foot-tall turbine, this time in Marstons Mills, shed its blades in a northeaster this Sunday, it seemed to some the start of a troubling trend. This weekend, the gusting winds, at times measuring over 60 mph, prompted Conrad Geyser to check in on the turbine he owns at Peck's Boats Inc. on Route 28 in Marstons Mills. "I was looking and listening, and I didn't see anything off the chart," he said yesterday. "The thing was going like crazy and moving around a lot, but nothing any more extreme than we'd seen already." Geyser said he believes sometime in the early morning Sunday a big gust may have hit especially hard and knocked the blade tips off. He's not sure how far they landed from the tower. Wind turbine blades can be subjected to enormous pressures, especially in the Cape's notoriously stormy weather. "They're light," he said. "But anytime you have something falling from the sky, there is concern." Of greater concern are the relatively heavy blades on larger models. But, of course, the larger the turbine, the greater the level of sophistication and safety features built in to avoid just such a scenario.
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03/17/10 -
3D printing on a much larger scale
The end goal of this giant rapid prototyping machine is to print buildings. We’re not holding our breath for a brand new Flintstones-esque abode, but their whimsical suggesting of printed buildings on the moon seems like science fiction with potential. The machine operates similar to a RepRap but instead of plastic parts, it prints stone by binding sand with epoxy. This method is not revolutionary, but hasn’t really been seen in applications larger than a square meter or so. It’s fun to see the things we dabble in heading for industrial production applications.
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03/17/10 -
Apple Doesn’t Own “i”
Apple has been told that it no longer has a monopoly on the letter ''i'' as a prefix for its products. A trademarks tribunal has refused Apple's bid to stop a small company from trademarking the name DOPi for use on its laptop bags and cases for Apple products. The California-based technology company argued that the DOPi name - iPod spelt backwards - was too similar to its own hugely popular portable music player, which has sold more than 100 million units worldwide. While the case does not affect Apple's current trademarks, companies wanting to use the ''i'' prefix will now have a better chance of getting away with it, according to lawyers.
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The primary object of my invention is the provision of an apparatus for the creation of illusory effects calculated to impress the subject with their being of a supernatural character and to so work upon his imagination to enable an inquisitor operating in conjunction with the recording system to obtain confessions and graphically record them by light action under the control of electric impulses governed by varying intensities of sound waves. The recording device is in the skull of the skeleton.
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03/17/10 -
An example of how government produces sloppy work
Did you get your census form yet? We got ours today, and I'm already stuck. The cover letter, dated March 15, 2010, says Please complete and mail back the enclosed census form today. Question 1 asks: How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010? What do I do? I can't lie. I have to fill it in and mail it today. I can't predict the future. I'm not even an illegal alien and I'm already confused and terrified over this thing. (And they can fine you up to $5,000 if you refuse to fill it out or give incorrect answers. - JWD)
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03/17/10 -
Alternative Sources Of Income
Stop a moment and ask yourself where your life is heading in relation to your income. Are you currently working to produce multiple sources of revenue, or is it just to keep a steady income which greatly depends on the amount of time and effort invested? Is it just earned and then spent almost immediately? Have you given any thought for the exact reason of having alternative sources of income? Does it depend mainly on the time and effort or is it to raise higher profits? We enjoy a lifestyle that consumes all of our income which in most cases is obtained from employment. As soon as monies are earned from our modes of employment or occupations, 'the list of needs' too start to grow – properties to acquire, getting tangled in the 'spending web' etc. Then immediately we are faced with the situation of raising a substantial income to meeting our rising expenses. We work hard, spending a lot of our time and energy to raise the required monies to meet our expenses. Work opportunities are limited but our needs are increasing – so we look for changes in effort and time, all for the sake of earning more income. A single source of income, which is frequently unstable, struggles to survive in this world of rising costs. Thus people are looking for constant changes in employment, utilizing most of their available time, resources and energy to generate alternate sources of income to live a comfortable life. It is only you who would know what is your path to prosperity. Whether it is staying in your current employment or to design a business where you can get yourself fully involved. Investing in stocks, developing projects on the Internet, entering the property market, or turning your hobby into a thriving enterprise are among some of the many options to consider. Your personal interests and tastes as well as your knowledge and intuition will tell you the right path to choose. You can yet continue to have your current job and start on your own project by investing part of your time. Make sure that you always select something compatible with your tastes and interests. Think, investigate, and create in it, basically do by yourself.
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03/17/10 -
Social Security to start cashing Uncle Sam's IOUs
For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year. Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more. Sounds like a good time to start tapping the nest egg. Too bad the federal government already spent that money over the years on other programs, preferring to borrow from Social Security rather than foreign creditors. In return, the Treasury Department issued a stack of IOUs — in the form of Treasury bonds — which are kept in a nondescript office building just down the street from Parkersburg's municipal offices. Now the government will have to borrow even more money, much of it abroad, to start paying back the IOUs, and the timing couldn't be worse. The government is projected to post a record $1.5 trillion budget deficit this year, followed by trillion dollar deficits for years to come. Social Security's shortfall will not affect current benefits. As long as the IOUs last, benefits will keep flowing. But experts say it is a warning sign that the program's finances are deteriorating. Social Security is projected to drain its trust funds by 2037 unless Congress acts, and there's concern that the looming crisis will lead to reduced benefits. "This is not just a wake-up call, this is it. We're here," said Mary Johnson, a policy analyst with The Senior Citizens League, an advocacy group. "We are not going to be able to put it off any more."
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03/17/10 -
Abuse shortens Telomeres and Lifespan
Suffering physical or emotional abuse as a child shortens telomeres accelerating adult cellular aging.
Audrey Tyrka and her colleagues from Butler Hospital and Brown University examined the DNA of healthy adults who had a history of childhood maltreatment and found they had shorter telomeres than those who did not experience child maltreatment. Dr. Tyrka explained that the findings “suggest the possibility that early developmental experiences may have profound effects on biology that can influence cellular mechanisms at a very basic level and even lead to accelerated aging.”
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03/17/10 -
Your Skin Bacteria is as good as Fingerprints
Forget fingerprints, now you can be identified by the unique genomic profile of bacteria living on your skin. The researchers extracted bacterial DNA from numerous samples taken from the three keyboards and sequenced more than 1,400 copies of bacterial ribosomal gene from each sample to identify the individual species of bacteria each sample contained, finding they could match the three individuals with the keyboards they used. They then took swabs from computer mouses of nine different people. When they compared the bacteria found in the samples to a database of microbial communities found on 270 hands of people who had never touched any of the computer mouses, the researchers found that the bacteria on each person's mouse was more similar to that on their hand than to samples in the database. So far, Fierer notes, the technique is extremely preliminary, but it could one day be as accurate as techniques like DNA or fingerprint analysis, he says.
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03/17/10 -
Attack of the Killer Electrons
"At the peak of a magnetic storm, the number of highly energetic 'killer electrons' strong enough to damage electronics and human tissue can increase by a factor of more than ten times, posing a danger to spacecraft, satellites, and astronauts. Killer electrons can penetrate satellite shielding, so if electrical discharges take place in vital components, a satellite can be damaged or even rendered inoperable. For many years, the mechanism by which killer electrons are produced has remained poorly understood, in spite of physicists' attempts at solving this puzzle. Now the ESA reports that data shows the increase in the creation of a substantial number of killer electrons is due to a two-step process. First, the initial acceleration is due to the strong shock-related magnetic field compression. Immediately after the impact of the interplanetary shock wave, Earth's magnetic field lines began wobbling at ultra low frequencies. In turn, these ULF waves effectively accelerate the seed electrons (provided by the first step) to become killer electrons. 'These new findings help us to improve the models predicting the radiation environment in which satellites and astronauts operate. With solar activity now ramping up, we expect more of these shocks to impact our magnetosphere over the months and years to come,' says Philippe Escoubet, ESA's Cluster mission manager."
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03/17/10 -
China To Connect Its High-Speed Rail To Europe
"China already has the most advanced and extensive high-speed rail lines in the world, and soon that network will be connected all the way to Europe and the UK. With initial negotiations and surveys already complete, China is now making plans to connect its HSR line through 17 other countries in Asia and Eastern Europe in order to connect to the existing infrastructure in the EU. Additional rail lines will also be built into South East Asia as well as Russia, in what will likely become the largest infrastructure project in history."
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03/17/10 -
YouTube Won’t Film Her
YouTube is a video hosting website... in other words, they are a website that allows people to use their service and upload homemade videos and store them. YouTube then allows people to view those videos. At Yahoo Answers: How to get youtube to film you? -

"I have been calling, calling, and calling YouTube like crazy to come film some videos for me but they won't come. I do not understand how other people get there videos on YouTube. YouTube needs to come film me cuz i have some funny things to show the internet."
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03/17/10 -
Japanese Turning To "Therapeutic Ringtones"
"A host of young Japanese are drawn to the allure of 'therapeutic ringtones' — a genre of melodies that promises to ease a range of day-to-day gripes, from chronic insomnia to a rotten hangover. Developed by Matsumi Suzuki, the head of the Japan Ringing Tone Laboratory, an eight-year-old subsidiary of the Japan Acoustic Laboratory, the tones are a hit with housewives as well as teenagers."
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03/17/10 -
The State of Robotic Surgery
"Robotic surgery is experiencing explosive growth in America's operating rooms, and the unquestioned industry leader in this field is the DaVinci robot, made by Intuitive Surgical. Only 14% of prostate surgeries in the US last year took place not using the DaVinci. Installations have grown from 210 systems seven years ago to 1,395 today. Although typically used for smaller surgeries like prostate removal and hysterectomies, the system was recently used for a kidney transplant, and more complicated procedures are expected in the future. The DaVinci is really just the first wave of robotic surgery as technology continues to push clumsy human hands out of the operating room."
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03/17/10 -
Advances In Sewing Needles
Spiral Eye Needles, an innovation in sewing. Why...were there so many gadgets out there to thread a needle, yet no one stopped to say, wait a minute, it isn't me that has a problem, it is the design of the needle? Needle threaders are great, if you can find the eye to put the thin metal wire into it. And if you can keep track of where the threader is. And if you have a needle with an eye big enough to pull a double piece of thread through it.
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03/17/10 -
Study Finds That Video Games Hinder Learning In Young Boys
"Researchers at Denison University in Ohio have shown that giving PlayStations to young boys leads to slower progress in reading and writing skills. Quoting: 'The study is the first controlled trial to look at the effects of playing video games on learning in young boys. That is to say, the findings aren't based on survey data of kids' game habits, but instead on a specific group of children that were randomly assigned to receive a PlayStation or not ... Those with PlayStations also spent less time engaged in educational activities after school and showed less advancement in their reading and writing skills over time than the control group, according to tests taken by the kids. While the game-system owners didn't show significant behavioral problems, their teachers did report delays in learning academic skills, including writing and spelling.'"
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03/17/10 -
The Bloodhound Will Stay On the Ground At 1,000 mph
"BBC reports that engineers designing the world's fastest car, the Bloodhound SSC, built to smash the world land speed record of 763 mph set by the Thrust SuperSonic Car in 1997, believe they have a solution to keep the vehicle flat on the ground at 1,000 mph after initial iterations of the car's aerodynamic shape produced dangerous amounts of lift at the vehicle's rear. John Piper, Bloodhound's technical director, said: 'We've had lift as high as 12 tonnes, and when you consider the car is six-and-a-half tonnes at its heaviest — that amount of lift is enough to make the car fly.' The design effort has been aided by project sponsor Intel, who brought immense computing power to bear on the lift problem. Before Intel's intervention, the design team had worked through 11 different 'architectures' in 18 months. The latest modelling work run on Intel's network investigated 55 configurations in eight weeks. By playing with the position and shape of key elements of the car's rear end, the design team found the best way to manage the shockwave passing around and under the vehicle as it goes supersonic. 'At Mach 1.3, we've close to zero lift, which is where we wanted to be,' says Piper. In late 2011, the Bloodhound, powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine, will mount an assault on the land speed record, driving across a dried up lakebed known as Hakskeen Pan, in the Northern Cape of South Africa."
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03/15/10 -
Adios Peter Graves!
Peter Graves, the tall, stalwart actor likely best known for his portrayal of Jim Phelps, leader of a gang of special agents who battled evil conspirators in the long-running television series "Mission: Impossible," died Sunday. Graves died of an apparent heart attack outside his Los Angeles home, publicist Sandy Brokaw said. He would have been 84 this week. Graves appeared in dozens of films and a handful of television shows in a career of nearly 60 years. The authority and trust he projected made him a favorite for commercials late in his life, and he was often encouraged to go into politics. "He had this statesmanlike quality," Brokaw said. "People were always encouraging him to run for office. But he said, 'I like acting. I like being around actors.'" Star of 'Mission Impossible', the show ran on CBS from 1967 to 1973 and was revived on ABC from 1988 to 1990 with Graves back as the only original cast member. The actor credited clever writing for the show's success. "It made you think a little bit and kept you on the edge of your seat because you never knew what was going to happen next," he once said.
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03/15/10 -
New charging method could greatly reduce battery recharge time
Part of the headache of having to constantly recharge batteries is not just how often they need to be charged, but also the time it takes to charge them. In a new study, researchers have proposed a charging method that could greatly reduce the charging time of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in everything from electronic devices to electric vehicles. The new method uses an additional oscillating electric field (besides the charging field) that should be capable of charging a lithium-ion battery in a fraction of the time compared with traditional methods. In the charging process, lithium ions first diffuse within the battery’s electrolyte until they reach the graphite anode. At this interface, ions must overcome an energy barrier in order to be intercalated into the anode. In their simulations, Hamad and his team found that an additional oscillating electric field can lower this energy barrier, enabling lithium ions to intercalate more quickly into the anode. The oscillating field also increases the diffusion rate, which helps further reduce the overall charging time, albeit to a lesser extent. Specifically, when the scientists applied an oscillating square-wave field with a frequency of 25 GHz and an amplitude of 5 kCal/mol to the graphite sheets in the anode, the lithium ions intercalated into the graphite sheets within an average time of about 50 nanoseconds. By changing the amplitude of the oscillating wave, the researchers found that they could further improve charging time by lowering the energy barrier and speeding up intercalation. Their simulations showed that the dependence of the intercalation time on the amplitude is exponential, meaning that a small increase in amplitude leads to a large increase the intercalation speed, which offers the potential for very fast charging times. In the future, the researchers plan to further investigate the new method, including analyzing how changing the frequency of the oscillating field effects the charging time. They noted that the new method might provide an increase in battery power densities, as well.
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03/15/10 -
The Story of Bottled Water
http://storyofbottledwater.org The Story of Bottled Water, releasing March 22, 2010, employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industrys attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all.
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03/15/10 -
Scientist tests 'Goasis Waterboxx' water condenser
A Dutch scientist, author and major exporter of lilies and flower bulbs from Holland is bringing an innovative tree-growing approach to the harshest, most arid areas of the high and low deserts. Pieter Hoff's “Goasis Waterboxx” invention produces and captures water from the air through condensation and rain. He describes it as an “intelligent water incubator” that uses no energy, prevents water from evaporating from the soil and distributes water to saplings, seeds and, eventually, trees in small doses. Although the Waterboxx is a relatively simple-looking device that resembles a plastic, rectangular bucket and is about the size of a motorcycle tire, its inner technology is more complex and surrounds saplings or seeds that are planted in the soil and distributes water in small doses. Trees that get a head start and tend to survive in the toughest environment. The Waterboxx, which can be used up to 10 times and is built for less than $10 , also protects roots against sun, wind, weeds, rodents and some animals. Anyone interested in viewing animations about the science of growing trees or the Waterboxx can visit www.groasis.com/page/uk/animation.php.
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03/15/10 -
Deering Man's New Invention In Wind Energy
It’s got a small front set of wings, three blades, that actually spiral. Dan Parker stands outside Blanchard Machine Development in Hillsboro. He’s holding onto a pole that’s attached to his new invention. Parker calls it the Spiralairfoil. You can see she’s very responsive to the wind, it will find the wind every time. The Spiralairfoil is a funnel-shaped wind turbine that’s six feet in diameter and 10 feet long. This prototype has plastic blades that spiral in the wind like a corkscrew. A lot of the wind spills over the front blades and then wraps back in and collapses into the back set of blades. As a result of the spiral, Parker says the contraption pivots itself into the wind like a weathervane. Parker has spent the last three years trying to perfect the turbine. He says they’ve tested different types of materials for the turbine’s blades-- from stainless steel to plastic. We’re looking into a carbon composite material which a lot of traditional three bladed windmills use a carbon composite material which is very rugged, we’re told that material can be colored so it can match a person’s house if they wanted it to.” But what makes this windmill different from much of the rest…it functions at a much lower wind speed. Parker says it starts up at just one point six miles an hour. “So we’re actually gaining power earlier than everybody else, so it will produce more power on a given day than anybody else’s wind turbine.” Squeezing more power from available wind is ideal for customers who may not live in extremely windy locations.
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03/15/10 -
New use found for 'world's most useful tree'
A recipe for using "the world's most useful tree" to purify water is being offered for free download, in the hope that this will help get clean drinking water to billions of poor folk around the world. The tree in question is the Moringa oleifera ("oily moringa") aka the horseradish or drumstick tree (also "Mother's best friend" in some places). The Moringa is cultivated across the tropical world and furnishes food in the form of apparently highly nutritious* pods, leaves and flowers. It also yields oil which can be used as lighting or cooking fuel (or to make biogas). You can even make a highly effective crop fertiliser out of the miracle Moringa. Handily, the trusty tree is also drought resistant and tolerant of poor soil. But that's not all, it turns out. You can also use Moringa products to inexpensively purify dirty drinking water. “Moringa oleifera is a vegetable tree which is grown in Africa, Central and South America, the Indian subcontinent, and South East Asia. It could be considered to be one of the world’s most useful trees,” says Michael Lea, a Canadian water-purification researcher. “Perhaps most importantly, its seeds can be used to purify drinking water at virtually no cost.” The method in outline involves crushing the tree's seeds to powder and making a solution with this. When the solution is added to turbid, dirty water it causes the suspended gunge to rapidly stick together into bigger flecks and so sink rapidly. Almost all contamination is thus carried down quite quickly into a sludge at the bottom of the container, allowing nice clear water to be decanted or siphoned off from the top. The Moringa-seed technique, according to Lea, isn't foolproof - there are various bacteria and viruses which will not be affected by it. But it makes water much safer and more pleasant to drink, and Moringa treatment is hugely better than no treatment at all, which is the norm for far too many people. “This technique does not represent a total solution to the threat of waterborne disease," concedes Lea. "However, given that the cultivation and use of the Moringa tree can bring benefits in the shape of nutrition and income as well as of far purer water, there is the possibility that thousands of 21st century families could find themselves liberated from what should now be universally seen as 19th century causes of death and disease. According to Lea, despite the fact that Moringa is widespread in the very regions where bad water is a serious problem, the seed-paste purification method is little known. Thus his paper on just how to do it is being published for free online. Now all that's needed is for the knowledge of the recipe to spread. We don't suppose we have all that many readers in regions where it would be useful, but perhaps some of you can pass it on. ® * The leaves of the Moringa are said by some sources to be several times as rich in the relevant desirable vitamins and minerals as orange juice, bananas, carrots and milk.
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03/15/10 -
Underground Lightning GPS
News has emerged of a secret US military programme intended to let troops navigate about inside huge underground enemy tunnel complexes by measuring energy pulses given off by lightning bolts. The project is known as "Sferics-Based Underground Geolocation", or S-BUG, and is focused on building "a mapping and navigation system that provides Global Positioning System (GPS) equivalent accuracy in underground environments". Not only does a deep tunnel complex shield an organisation from the prying orbital eyes, it is also good protection against a sudden bombing raid of the sort which destroyed Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981 or smashed a possible nuclear facility of some kind in Syria during 2006. Thus the world's superweapon projects, secret bases, command and control HQs etc have tended to move underground more and more: and thus the US military/spook/special-ops community has tended to ponder subterranean operations more and more. DARPA boffins have noted that one of the few kinds of wireless signal which can penetrate underground is low-frequency radio. Unfortunately such signals are quite hard to generate at the required power levels. A network of lo-freq RF nav stations widespread enough to offer decent accuracy would probably be impossible to deploy. But the right kind of signals are generated naturally by lightning strikes, which cause the emission of "atmospheric" ("sferic" or "spheric") radio pulses. An underground receiver could perhaps be built capable of detecting sferics from lightning bolts hitting the surface hundreds of miles away. It could be informed of the positions of the strikes over LF comms by a single specialised surface base station, similarly far off, and thus calculate its own position from sferic data coming in from several directions.
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03/15/10 -
Best Fluid Motion Pictures Named...
Fluid motion can move the observer even when static... Resembling a river valley seen from the air, this two-dimensional, computer-generated picture—one of the American Physical Society's best fluid-motion images of 2009—illustrates what's known as a von Kármán vortex street. Named after Hungarian aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán, a vortex street occurs when an airstream flows around a body—in the above image, a hollow cylinder—and breaks behind it into a series of wakes and eddies. The purple-blue regions show where the resulting waves have met, and the red regions show where the airstream will split in the future, according to the winning team of scientists from the Zuse Institute in Berlin, Berlin Institute of Technology, and Northeastern University.
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
The One True Cause of All Disease
Alternative practitioners constantly claim that conventional medicine treats only symptoms while they treat underlying causes. They’ve got it backwards. Nope. Not true. Exactly backwards. Think about it: When you go to a doctor with a fever, does he just treat the symptom? No, he tries to figure out what’s causing the fever. If it’s pneumonia, he identifies which microbe is responsible and gives you the right drugs to treat that particular infection. If you have abdominal pain, does the doctor just give you narcotics to treat the symptom of pain? No, he tries to figure out what’s causing the pain. If he determines you have acute appendicitis, he operates to remove your appendix. I guess what they’re trying to say is that something must have been wrong in the first place to allow the disease to develop. But they don’t have any better insight into what that something might be than scientific medicine. All they have is wild, imaginative guesses. And they all disagree with one another. The chiropractor says that if your spine is in proper alignment, you can’t get sick. Acupuncturists talk about the proper flow of qi through the meridians. Energy medicine practitioners talk about disturbances in energy fields. Nutrition faddists claim that people who eat right won’t get sick. None of them can produce any evidence to support these claims. No alternative medicine has been scientifically shown to prevent disease or cure it. If it had, it would have been incorporated into conventional medicine and would no longer be “alternative.” Are these practitioners treating the underlying cause, or are they simply applying their one chosen tool to treat everything?
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
Wind resistance
MIT analysis suggests generating electricity from large-scale wind farms could influence climate — and not necessarily in the desired way. A new MIT analysis may serve to temper enthusiasm about wind power, at least at very large scales. Ron Prinn, TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science, and principal research scientist Chien Wang of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, used a climate model to analyze the effects of millions of wind turbines that would need to be installed across vast stretches of land and ocean to generate wind power on a global scale. Such a massive deployment could indeed impact the climate, they found, though not necessarily with the desired outcome. In a paper published online Feb. 22 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Wang and Prinn suggest that using wind turbines to meet 10 percent of global energy demand in 2100 could cause temperatures to rise by one degree Celsius in the regions on land where the wind farms are installed, including a smaller increase in areas beyond those regions. Their analysis indicates the opposite result for wind turbines installed in water: a drop in temperatures by one degree Celsius over those regions. The researchers also suggest that the intermittency of wind power could require significant and costly backup options, such as natural gas-fired power plants. Prinn cautioned against interpreting the study as an argument against wind power, urging that it be used to guide future research that explores the downsides of large-scale wind power before significant resources are invested to build vast wind farms. “We’re not pessimistic about wind,” he said. “We haven’t absolutely proven this effect, and we’d rather see that people do further research.”
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
Has Blogging Peaked? Twitter Is So Much Easier
First there were BBS's. They were supplanted by Internet message forums and newsgroups. Which where then done in by blogs. Which are now going the wayside as Twitter, Facebook take over. So, what's next? / There is increasing evidence that the art of blog writing is losing ground to even faster forms of communication, from 140-character Twitter blasts to one-sentence status updates on Facebook and MySpace. Nielsen Media Research estimates that of the 126 million blogs counted by its crawlers, the vast majority are rarely – if ever – updated. Many longtime bloggers say that the blog is entering a period of important transition – from one-size-fits-all soapbox to just one more tool in the cluttered Internet toolbox. Facebook and Twitter, and not the blog, are now "the glue that holds online communities together," says Dylan Wilbanks, a Web producer in Seattle. Gone are the days when Mr. Wilbanks would take to his blog to describe quotidian events or record passing fancies. "Sharing small pieces of data like links over blogs was like owning a heavy-duty pickup that you only used to pick up bread and milk at the grocery store," he says. "Blogs are meant for people for whom being a writer, being a creator, is a passion, or perhaps a requirement of life. They're meant for people for whom Facebook's 'What's on your mind?' question can't always be answered in 500 characters or less." As Wilbanks is quick to point out, not everyone has that passion, which is why blogging is losing its luster. ( via fark.com )
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03/15/10 -
The Marble Lifting Machine
This is a wooden marble machine. It is 6 feet tall, and is powered only by potential energy, a little kinetic energy and gravity. there are no motors, batteries or cranks. It uses a 3/8 inch diameter steel marble, which starts at the bottom, and goes to the top, and then returns to the bottom,making this trip about 1,300 times in 24 hours. - (This reminded me of Uncle's Perpetual Motion Toy except that with this machine, he has to preload some of the devices like cocking a spring, etc..so it's not self-running as the Uncle device was claimed to be. - JWD)
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03/15/10 -
The Man Who Plucks All the Strings
String theory explains what you might see if you zoomed in without limit, past the cells that constitute your body, past the atoms that make up those cells, past even the electrons and gluons that those atoms are made of, all the way to the scale of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a centimeter. At that level, according to the theory, lies the foundation of all the particles and forces in the universe: one-dimensional strands of energy, or “strings,” vibrating in nine dimensions. That may seem wildly counterintuitive, but many scientists agree it is the most promising approach to explain the laws of physics. Columbia University physicist Brian Greene has become the public face of string theory. He has provided insight into the topology of those additional dimensions, and in 1999 he introduced the theory to nonscientists in a best-selling book, The Elegant Universe. As scientists we track down all promising leads, and there’s reason to suspect that our universe may be one of many—a single bubble in a huge bubble bath of other universes. And you can then imagine that maybe these different bubbles all have different shapes for their extra dimensions. This suggests a landscape of different universes with different forms of extra dimensions and therefore different properties within those universes. If that is true, our universe would be one of many, and then the question becomes why are we in this one and not in some other one.
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03/15/10 -
Smart Windows: Good for Seeing Through, Generating Electricity Too
PV panels aren't exactly the most attractive of household additions, in their typical "we just bolted these suckers onto your shingles" installation (though they are much more visually attractive than the solar heating units the come with the ugly cylindrical water tanks on the top.) There are fresh re-inventions that are tackling this problem, like the neat PV solar roof tiles, but they're not universally suitable. Whereas every home has windows. And this fact has led Dutch company Peer+ to create Smart Energy Glass panels that generate current from the sun while also acting as like those old-fashioned devices that lets you see right through a wall. But that's not all. Similar to the other up-and-coming LCD glass treatments that let you blank a window at the flick of a switch (removing the need for curtains, blinds or shutters,) these smart windows also have selectable darkness. Darkest is the highest privacy mode, and thanks to a trick of the optics concerned, also leads to the most efficient power generation from solar input. And you can even choose between a range of shades for the glass and also incorporate logos or text into the panels, which will appeal to countless businesses.
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03/15/10 -
Plastic solar cell a boon
A Université Laval discovery has led to the invention of a tiny plastic solar cell that will allow people to charge cellular phones as they sit in a bag, or to recharge a laptop from a sun umbrella. Leclerc discovered a family of plastics that can conduct energy. Konarka used that discovery to develop a plastic film that has the capability to capture outdoor and indoor light and convert it to energy. The technology is being evaluated by the U.S. army for lightweight and portable battery charging. It has also been incorporated into Neuber's Energy Sun-Bags, solar energy bags that can power cellphones, MP3 players and cameras.
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
Nokia Seeks Patent For Kinetic Battery Charger
Nokia's invention makes use of piezoelectric elements, which absorb energy as the device is moving around in a pocket or purse, and transforms it into electricity, the company said in an application filed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. As electronic devices add ever more complex features they also require more energy, so extending the battery life is getting increasingly difficult, Nokia said in the patent application. The kinetic power generated by the new application will probably not be strong enough to charge a mobile phone on its own, according to Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant, but it could provide supplemental energy. The piezoelectric effect, by which certain materials when bent or compressed generate an electrical charge, is the same phenomenon that powers quartz watches. Still, Durrant said the patent application is a lengthy process. The patent application was filed back in August 2008, and it is still uncertain whether the invention will eventually end up on the market. It typically takes around six years from application date until a patent is granted by the U.S. authorities, he said.
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03/15/10 -
How to Make a Lava Lamp the Easy Way
http://www.sciencebob.com has detailed instructions for making this easy lava lamp. Chances are you have almost everything that you need at home, so try it out and let us know how it goes. We used fizzing antacid tablets that go by the brand name alka-seltzer here in the US. I'm not sure what they may be called in other countries. Have fun!
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03/15/10 -
JPL Background Check Case Reaches Supreme Court
"A long-running legal battle between the United States government and a group of 29 scientists and engineers of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, has now reached the US Supreme Court." At issue: mandatory background checks for scientists and engineers working at JPL, which they allege includes snooping into their sexual orientation, as well as their mental and physical health.
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
Why Are Digital Hearing Aids So Expensive?
"Over the last couple of years I've been slowly getting deaf. Too much loud rock and roll I suppose. After flubbing a couple of job interviews because I couldn't understand my inquisitors, I had a hearing test which confirmed what I already knew: I'm deaf. So I tried on a set of behind-the-ear hearing aids. Wow, my keyboard makes clacks as I type and my wife doesn't mumble to herself. Then I asked how much: $3,700 for the pair. Hey, I'm unemployed. The cheapest digital hearing aids they had were $1,200 each. If you look at the specs they are not very impressive. A digital hearing aid has a low-power A-to-D converter. Output consists of D-to-A conversion with volume passing through an equalizer that inversely matches your hearing loss. Most hearing loss, mine included, is frequency dependent, so an equalizer does wonders. The 'cheap' hearing aids had only four channels while the high-end one had twelve. My 1970 amplifier had more than that. I suppose they have some kind of noise reduction circuitry, too, but that's pretty much it. So my question is this: when I can get a very good netbook computer for under $400 why do I need to pay $1,200 per ear for a hearing aid? Alternatives would be welcome."
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
$79.90 Songbird Hearing Aid lasts 6 Months
The doctor-recommended Songbird flexfit™ is the world's first digital disposable hearing aid for people with mild to moderate hearing loss; especially those who feel they may not need hearing help all the time. Use it at meetings, when watching TV - or anytime you want to hear better. Conversations will be easier. You'll notice the difference, and others will too. Songbird is an affordable and hassle-free way of receiving outstanding digital sound without having to pay the high costs of traditional hearing aids and their maintenance. With a built-in battery that lasts up to 400 hours of active use (or up to 6 months, depending on usage patterns), Songbird eliminates the hassles of battery replacements and professional cleanings. Once the battery runs out, simply discard and begin using a fresh new flexfit™. Songbird is truly Better Hearing Made Easy

* Effective: Songbird delivers crystal-clear digital sound, making conversation and dialogue clear and enjoyable.
* Disposable: Patented design provides 400 hours of active use. It can last up to 6 months then just replace it with a new one.
* Hassle-Free: There is no time (or money) spent on hearing exams, in-office fittings or maintenance.
* Affordable: Don't commit to thousands of dollars for a traditional hearing aid. The low cost makes it a great value, and with Songbird you only pay for what you need.
* Discreet: Compact and comfortable -- Songbird is the only behind-the-ear product that's adjustable for optimal fit.
* Quality: Invented in Princeton, NJ by the Sarnoff Corporation, the same research lab that invented HDTV.

03/15/10 -
Morons with Signs
Why? Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. I believe in this whole-heartedly. And I appreciate anyone who has the gumption to protest despite their handicapped abilities to articulate what they oppose. Their right, and ours, to a freedom of speech is something few in this world can savor. Another right we should not forget to savor, though, is the right to mock them. Some of these signs have been floating around the internet for a while and could be called classics, others are new. They just needed to be collected in one place. Please enjoy, and share it with your friends. - (I'd think if you have a point to make and take the time to create a sign, you'd at the very least make sure the spelling was accurate. - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
Former Astronauts Call Obama NASA Plans "Catastrophic"
"Talking to the BBC at a private function held at the Royal Society in London, former astronauts Jim Lovell and Eugene Cernan both spoke out about Obama's decision to postpone further moon missions. Lovell claimed that 'it will have catastrophic consequences in our ability to explore space and the spin-offs we get from space technology,' while Cernan noted he was 'disappointed' to have been the last person to land on the moon. Said Cernan: 'I think America has a responsibility to maintain its leadership in technology and its moral leadership ... to seek knowledge. Curiosity's the essence of human existence.' Neil Armstrong, who was also at the event, avoided commenting on the subject."
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
Air Force Spaceplane Readying For Launch
"The US Air Force is currently preparing for the launch of the secretive X-37B OTV-1 (Orbital Test Vehicle 1) spaceplane, which was transferred from NASA to DARPA back in 2004 when NASA opted to focus its budget on lunar exploration. The reusable unmanned spaceplane is set to launch in April on top of a commercial Atlas V rocket, orbit for up to 270 days while testing a number of new technologies, reenter the atmosphere, then land on auto-pilot in California."
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
What is Wrong with Israel?
One thing is claiming to be the victim all the time, over centuries. Another is acting in the same way, or worse, as those that are criticized for treating Jews badly. Those nations which do not behave as members of the international community, logically, should forfeit their rights to membership, just like a member of a sports club is banned if (s)he does not pay the fees or breaks the rules. So why is Israel always playing the victim card, when it violates international law? And if Israel accepts the notion “an eye for an eye” then it cannot complain when inevitably the type of violations it commits daily go full cycle and are visited upon Tel Aviv. Can it?
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
Classmates.com Settles Lawsuit Over Phony Friends
"Techflash reports that Classmates.com has agreed to pay up to $9.5 million to its users to settle a lawsuit that accused the social network of sending deceptive emails that made people believe their old friends from high school were reaching out to connect — only to discover, after paying for a membership, that their long-lost buddies were nowhere to be found. Lawyers for the plaintiffs asserted that Classmates had 'profited tremendously from their false or deceptive e-mail subject lines and related marketing tactics.' Under terms of the proposed settlement, Classmates.com members who upgraded to premium memberships after receiving one of the 'guestbook' emails will be able to choose either a $3 cash payout or a $2 credit toward the future purchase or renewal of a Classmates.com membership. Classmates.com is also among companies that have come under scrutiny for their use of 'post-transaction marketing' tactics — in which customers are given additional offers as part of the online payment process, sometimes in such a way that they aren't aware they're also signing up to pay more. A November 2009 US Senate Committee report said Classmates made more than $70 million through its relationship with post-transaction marketing firms. The Classmates Media unit posted $58.8 million in operating profit for 2009, up more than 24 percent from the previous year, making Classmates 'the most profitable social network in the world,' according to CEO Mark Goldston."
- Full Article Source

03/15/10 -
the Get Some Scam
If you have delicate sensibilities, you don't want to follow this link. It happened to me yesterday and I found it so outrageous and funny that I just had to post it on my Hellboxer blog.
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03/12/10 -
A Sign of the Times

03/12/10 -
Nanotube cuff is 'solar cell' for exhaust pipes
The hot gases passing through a vehicle's exhaust could be tapped to generate power, using "cuffs" made from a new carbon-nanotube-based material. The "thermocell" produces electricity at a similar cost per watt as commercial solar cells. The basic design is simple. Each thermocell contains two electrodes, positioned at either end of a temperature gradient: for example, one right next to a hot pipe and the other closer to the surrounding cooler air. In between is a chemical mix, in which the heat encourages chemical reactions that push electrons around an external circuit. Ions in the mix shed electrons at the hotter electrode and pick up electrons at the cooler one to complete the circuit. One of the team's thermocell designs is intended to be wrapped around a hot pipe, inspired by the fact that heat leaks out from such structures in many situations, such as chemical factories and power plants. "You could harvest energy from the tailpipe of a car," adds Baughman. The "hot" electrode wrapped around the pipe is surrounded by a heat-resistant layer, which is itself encased in a 'cold' electrode. An aqueous solution can move through pores in the heat-resistant layer, allowing ions to circulate between the reactions at the two electrodes. In tests, a prototype thermocell functioned well for 90 days. With an electrode temperature difference of 60 °C it produced energy for $5.14 per watt based on materials costs for the prototype – comparable with that of mass-produced silicon solar cells.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Propeller-Drive CAR has VANE Control (Sep, 1931)
CARRYING the development of air driven automobiles a step farther, Emil Sohn, a Berlin aviation engineer, has invented a motor car that secures high flexibility of control from power of an airplane motor and twin propellers located in the rear, in the position of the rumble seat. The propellers are mounted horizontally, the windstream being directed by means of adjustable vanes like the blades of a steam turbine. The powerful windstream tends to push the car forward at a tremendous speed when the vanes are set for “forward,” that is, slanting toward the rear. To go in reverse, the vanes are slanted forward, so that wind-stream pushes the car backward. Chief among the advantages offered by this method of propulsion are: utmost economy; the ability to climb steep mountain grades; smooth passage over roughest of roads; and the elimination of all danger of skidding on wet or icy streets, due to downward pressure on wheels exerted by upward windstream. - (Now this is a simple yet fascinating ducted fan method of propulsion. Imagine this with a jet engine. - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Twice-Monthly Half Mortgage Payments Might Save You Money
Some financial planners advise making two half payments on your mortgage each month instead of one full sum. The idea is that homeowners will save thousands of dollars over the years in interest payments. Does this idea hold water? Finance blog The Simple Dollar posits that, assuming your lender allows you to split your monthly payment without penalty, the plan just might work. Your next job, then, is to find out when your interest gets compounded. If it's only monthly, then half-mortgage payments won't do a thing. If, however, your interest compounds based on the average monthly balance, paying it down partially mid-month will end up saving you money over time. ... A superior method of doing this would be to simply make a payment equal to half of the amount of the monthly mortgage bill every two weeks. Over the course of a year, this adds up to one extra full payment: since there are fifty two weeks in a year, you'd make 26 half payments, and thus 13 full payments.
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DVD - the Physics of Crystals, Pyramids and Tetrahedrons
This is a wonderful 2 hour DVD which presents one man's lifelong study of pyramids, crystals and their effects. Several of his original and very creative experiments are explained and diagramed out for experimenters. These experiments include; 1) transmutation of zinc to lower elements using a tetrahedron, 2) energy extraction from a pyramid, 3) determining mathematic ratios of nature in a simple experiment, 4) accelerating the growth of food, 5) increasing the abundance of food, 6) how crystals amplify, focus and defocus energy, 7) using crystals to assist natural healing, 8) how the universe uses spirals and vortexes to produce free energy and MORE... - $20 DVD + S&H / Source to Buy and Youtube Clip

03/12/10 -
Cellphone Popcorn Trick again and debunked
WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES CAUSED BY THIS EXPERIMENT. =]
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Unbelievable - ATV Lake Skimming - 400 feet, doesn't sink!
Danny skims his Raptor 700R 400 feet with ease! Water is about 15-20' deep. He's Able to do this because he has paddle tires on the rear, additionally he's running low pressure in the stock fronts. No paddle tires in the back and high pressure in the front = bad things. / Walking on Water - "Although molecules in a liquid are electrically neutral in nature, there are often small attractive forces between them. These attractive forces (called Van der Waals forces) are caused by the asymmetrical charge distribution inside the molecules. Within a body of a liquid, a molecule will not experience a net force because the forces by the neighboring molecules all cancel out. However for a molecule on the surface of the liquid, there will be a net inward force since there will be no attractive force acting from above the molecule. This inward net force causes the molecules on the surface to contract and to resist being stretched or broken. Thus the surface is under tension and has Surface tension. Due to the surface tension, small objects will "float" on the surface of a fluid. When an object is on the surface of the fluid, the surface under tension will behave like an elastic membrane. There will be a small depression on the surface of the water. The vertical components of the forces by the molecules on the object will balance out the weight of the object." - (Thanks to Jerry Draughon for the headsup. - JWD)
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03/12/10 -
5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted
So, the headlines say somebody else has died due to video game addiction. Yes, it's Korea again. What the hell? Look, I'm not saying video games are heroin. I totally get that the victims had other things going on in their lives. But, half of you reading this know a World of Warcraft addict and experts say video game addiction is a thing. So here's the big question: Are some games intentionally designed to keep you compulsively playing, even when you're not enjoying it? Oh, hell yes. And their methods are downright creepy. / #5 Putting you in the Skinner Box / #4 Creating Virtual Food Pellets For You To Eat / #3 Making You Press the Lever / #2 Keeping You Pressing It... Forever / #1 Getting You To Call the Skinner Box Home - The danger lies in the fact that these games have become so incredibly efficient at delivering the sense of accomplishment that people used to get from their education or career. We're not saying gaming will ruin the world, or that gaming addiction will be a scourge on youth the way crack ruined the inner cities in the 90s. But we may wind up with a generation of dudes working at Starbucks when they had the brains and talent for so much more. They're dissatisfied with their lives because they wasted their 20s playing video games, and will escape their dissatisfaction by playing more video games. Rinse, repeat. And let's face it; if you think WoW is addictive, wait until you see the games they're making 10 years from now. They're only getting better at what they do.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Is the Web Making Us Passive?
Popular culture expert Adam Hanft - CEO of the branding firm Hanft Projects, co-author of The Dictionary of the Future: The Words, Terms and Trends That Define the Way We'll Live, Work and Talk, who blogs for the Huffington Post and FastCompany and has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - recently said: Even during the most heightened emotional outbursts, when people were mad over the bonuses being given to Wall Street, the people haven't reacted. I wonder if with the Internet, we're given the ability to vent and rant, and that releases everyone's energy, and then people keep doing what they're doing anyway. It seems like a curious psychological phenomenon. While the web is spreading long-buried truths for millions to see, it also may be bleeding off the energy we need to do something about the truth we've learned. Indeed, the passivity-inducing potential of the Internet will probably increase in the future.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
The green revolution sweeps into the bathroom
Environmentally-friendly "NoMix" toilets that separate urine and faeces could help to reduce pollution and save water. And support is growing for the adoption of the techno-toilets, CNET reports. NoMix toilets collect urine at the front and faeces at the back. Separating urine before it reaches sewage treatment plants could reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients entering rivers and triggering algal blooms, according to a paper in Environmental Science and Technology. The collected urine could also be recycled as agricultural fertiliser, conserving water. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology reviewed surveys of 2700 people across Europe, and found 80 per cent supported the idea of the toilets.
What's more, three-quarters of those surveyed said they found the comfort, smell and cleanliness of the new loos equalled that of conventional toilets.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Energizer USB battery charger contains backdoor?
The United States Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) has warned that the software included in the Energizer DUO USB battery charger contains a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access. When the Energizer UsbCharger software executes, it utilizes the UsbCharger.dll component for providing USB communication capabilities. UsbCharger.dll executes Arucer.dll via the Windows rundll32.exe mechanism, and it also configures Arucer.dll to execute automatically when Windows starts by creating an entry in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry key. US-CERT said that Arucer.dll is a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access via accepting connections on 7777/tcp. Here’s the major risk: An attacker is able to remotely control a system, including the ability to list directories, send and receive files, and execute programs. The backdoor operates with the privileges of the logged-on user. Anti-malware researchers at Symantec have posed a detailed write-up of the Trojan discovery. - (Why the heck do we need a simple battery charger to be connected to a computer??? - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Hate Paying for Cable? Here’s Why.
Love grousing about cable TV? Then I’ve got a list for you. It comes from industry analyst SNL Kagan, and I came across it via a research note Barclays Capital’s Anthony DiClemente sent out last week. DiClemente was arguing that the bundled approach to cable TV–whereby subscribers get dozens or even hundreds of channels for one big fee, no matter how many networks they actually watch–wasn’t going anywhere for quite some time. If ever. But if you’re the kind of person who thinks we’re headed for an a la carte model in which programmers compete directly for consumer dollars, you can use this as fodder for your argument. Because you can see just how much you’re paying for stuff you don’t want.

Obviously these are wholesale prices, not retail. But this gives you a very good idea of where the money goes–to a lot of channels you likely never, ever, look at. - (And while we are at it, NO COMMERCIALS, we are already paying for the cable service...jerks! - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Oxygen may lead to lighter Hangovers
Oxygen, it would seem, has an effect on the severity of hangovers. On March 1, a new study was published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, an academic journal, and researchers concluded that "enhanced dissolved oxygen concentrations in alcohol may reduce alcohol-related side effects." Researchers at Chungnam National University in South Korea found that when healthy subjects drank "elevated dissolved oxygen concentrations in alcoholic drinks," the metabolism and elimination of alcohol increased faster (30 minutes) than without the oxygenation. I had heard that pure oxygen breathed through a respirator is an amazing hangover cure. Here's proof... / It's unclear how oxygen-infused cocktails will be concocted, though one possibility may be that machines to oxygenate water will be used to transform well drinks into wellbeing drinks. Koreans may have figured it out with O2 Linn, a new oxygenated soju (traditional distilled alcohol beverage usually from rice or sweet potato) drink that will still get you drunk (if that's what you want) minus the hangover. The company claims O2 Linn will "help clarify your brain, energize your body cells and maintain healthy and resilient skin." The campaign is "O2 Linn for 3B (body, beauty, brain) and has above 22ppm of oxygen in each bottle touting an "exceptionally large amount of oxygen is dissolved in O2 Linn than any other liquor or soju."
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Vertical Prison Concept Hides Prisoners Up In the Sky
Alcatraz was designed to be impossible to escape from by being out on an island in San Francisco Bay. And this vertical prison concept has the same idea: if you want to escape, it's a long way down. It would use "pods" to transport people and equipment up to the top levels where everyone is, which is fun. And really, even if this just stays a concept, it might just inspire some filmmakers to include it in a sci-fi movie, which is almost better than it becoming a real prison. / Rehabilitation essentially involves both the offenders and community. to achieve this, we propose a prison where the criminals are taken off the street to a place within that community and while serving their sentences, they continuously contribute to that particular community yet remain separated; a vertical prison. Design to separate – a prison without wall the purpose of a prison is to isolate the inmates from society and a prison needs a barrier to do so. A vertical prison does so without a wall, instead it isolates the inmates through height, where jumping off the prison is the only option.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
As suspected, some Toyota acceleration cases have ulterior motives
Jalopnik reports that "James Sikes, the San Diego runaway Toyota Prius driver, filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and now has over $700,000 in debt. According to one anonymous tipster, we're also told he hasn't been making payments on his Prius." So was his story a fake? (props to boingboing.com)
- Full Article Source

KeelyNet BBS Files w/bonus PDF of 'Keely and his Discoveries'
Finally, I've gotten around to compiling all the files (almost 1,000 - about 20MB and lots of work doing it) from the original KeelyNet BBS into a form you can easily navigate and read using your browser, ideally Firefox but it does work with IE. Most of these files are extremely targeted, interesting and informative, I had forgotten just how much but now you can have the complete organized, categorized set, not just sprinklings from around the web. They will keep you reading for weeks if not longer and give you clues and insights into many subjects and new ideas for investigation and research. IN ADDITION, I am including as a bonus gift, the book (in PDF form) that started it all for me, 'Keely and his Discoveries - Aerial Navigation' which includes the analysis of Keely's discoveries by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton. This 407 page eBook alone is worth the price of the KeelyNet BBS CD but it will give you some degree of understanding about what all Keely accomplished which is just now being rediscovered, but of course, without recognizing Keely as the original discoverer. Chapters include; Vibratory Sympathetic and Polar Flows, Vibratory Physics, Latent Force in Interstitial Spaces and much more. To give some idea of how Keely's discoveries are being slowly rediscovered in modern times, check out this Keely History. These two excellent bodies of information will be sent to you on CD. If alternative science intrigues and fascinates you, this CD is what you've been looking for... - Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
New Fuel Injection System gets 64mpg
A California-based company called Transonic claims that its fuel injection system increases fuel efficiency by 75% while cutting emissions in half. No electric motors, no gimmicks… just a supercritical injection process. / Transonic Combustion successfully tested a new fuel injection system that gets 64 miles per gallon of regular gas during highway driving in a car weighing similar to a Toyota Prius. For comparison, the Prius is currently the most fuel-efficient car at 48 mpg highway. In your face, hybridouche. By heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber places it into a supercritical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion. This in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to run the vehicle. The gasoline is also treated with a catalyst to further enhance combustion. Unless that catalyst is something cheap that can be dumped right into the tank, that’s a problem. You can’t get “gasoline plus catalytic unicorn essence” at a regular pump. Not until I get my gas station and unicorn farm franchises up and running anyway. Dream the dream, people. / TSCiTM Fuel Injection achieves lean combustion and super efficiency by running gasoline, diesel, and advanced bio-renewable fuels on modern diesel engine architectures. Supercritical fluids have unusual physical properties that Transonic is harnessing for internal combustion engine efficiency. Supercritical fuel injection facilitates short ignition delay and fast combustion, precisely controls the combustion that minimizes crevice burn and partial combustion near the cylinder walls, and prevents droplet diffusion burn. Our engine control software facilitates extremely fast combustion, enabled by advanced microprocessing technology. Our injection system can also be supplemented by advanced thermal management, exhaust gas recovery, electronic valves, and advanced combustion chamber geometries. Our fuel system efficiently supports engine operation over the full range of conditions – from stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratios at full power to lean 80:1 air-to-fuel ratios at cruise, with engine-out NOx at just 50% of comparable standard engines. Our real-time programmable control of combustion heat release results in dramatically increased efficiency. Thus far 3 patents (#7444230, #7546826, #7657363) have been issued to Transonic from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office related to our technology, with another 14 patents pending.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Climategate: 3 of 4 Temperature Datasets Now Irrevocably Tainted
The warmist response to Climategate — the discovery of the thoroughly corrupt practices of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) — was that the tainted CRU dataset was just one of four independent data sets. You know. So really there’s no big deal. Thanks to a FOIA request, the document production of which I am presently plowing through — and before that, thanks to the great work of Steve McIntyre, and particularly in their recent, comprehensive work, Joseph D’Aleo and Anthony Watts — we know that NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) passed no one’s test for credibility. Not even NASA’s. In fact, CRU’s former head, Phil Jones, even told his buddies that while people may think his dataset — which required all of those “fudge factors” (their words) — is troubled, “GISS is inferior” to CRU. Really. NASA’s temperature data is so woeful that James Hansen’s colleague Reto Ruedy told the USA Today weather editor: “My recommendation to you is to continue using … CRU data for the global mean [temperatures]. … “What we do is accurate enough” — left unspoken: for government work — “[but] we have no intention to compete with either of the other two organizations in what they do best.” To reiterate, NASA’s temperature data is worse than the Climategate temperature data. According to NASA.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Magnet Skills
Zen Magnets are small but curiously strong rare earth super-magnets, 5mm in diameter. How powerful? 8 Times more powerful than the ceramic magnets driving your speakers. 30 Times more powerful than the average fridge magnet. Pull them into a chain, fold them into a fabric, and meld them into limitless shapes: both abstract and geometric, flat or 3D. Use them when you need to massage your mind, practice your patience, relieve some boredom or alleviate some stress.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
How obscure security makes school suck
DrJohn2005 Recently out of Virginia's public school system, youngster James Stephenson writes in to say that being a kid sucks. So what's new? A gauntlet of cameras, invasive searches and authoritarian security theatrics that don't make schools feel safer—but do tempt administrators into privacy abuses such as Lower Merion's recent webcam-spying scandal. Special feature: "Seen Not Heard: How obscure security makes school suck."
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Water-Scraper: Underwater Architecture
To create the more resilient cities of tomorrow turn sky scraper designs upside down and float them in the sea. The hO2 scraper proposes to break free of the urban fabric and functions as self-sufficient ambassadors in the sea. The hO2 scraper is an autonomous floating unit of livable, functional and self sustaining space which will function, in a collective manner, as a floating city. It is self sufficient as it generates its own power through wave, wind, current, solar, bio etc. and it generates its own food through farming, aquaculture, hydroponics etc. / The hO2+ scraper proposes to break free of the urban fabric and functions as self-sufficient ambassadors in the sea. The hO2+ scraper is an autonomous floating unit of livable, functional and self sustaining space which will function, in a collective manner, as a floating city. It is self sufficient as it generates its own power through wave, wind, current, solar, bio etc. and it generates its own food through farming, aquaculture, hydroponics etc. It carries with its own small forest on top its back and supports places for users to live and works in its depths. Its bioluminescent tentacles provide sea fauna a place to live and congregate while collecting energy through its kinetic movements. Such sustainability strategies aim to ultimately create and provide an oasis with ‘Zero’ negative impacts to the environment, not only that but also improves on it hence the ’Plus’. Aptly as poetic antithesis to a skyscraper which goes up into the heavens the hO2+ scraper goes down to the depths of the sea. The main components of the programme for the hO2+ scraper consist of resource generation (i.e. power, food, air etc), living, work, play, waste treatment and maintenance. The programme is spread evenly in accordance to the proximity of any specific required external resource i.e. the wind generators are placed of the roof garden island, the livestock farming component is also placed there, the living areas are placed just below sea level where the natural light is the best etc. The building itself is kept upright using a system of ballast and balancing tanks. The tentacles also serve as balancing elements as they, in generating their power, are constantly moving with the rhythm of the tide. The buoyancy and ballast controls are placed at the lowest portions to create the proper counterforce for keeping the building upright.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Ranking the Countries - Where best to live for you?
If life in your nation becomes untenable, how do you find the best alternative? One of the best tools available for evaluating nation states is the Heritage Foundation's Annual Index of Economic Freedom. The Foundation assigns a 1 to 10 score for each of ten criteria (Business Freedom, Trade Freedom, Fiscal Freedom, Government Spending, Monetary Freedom, Investment Freedom, Financial Freedom, Property rights, Freedom from Corruption, and Labor Freedom). Then the ten scores are totaled to obtain an overall rating for each of the world's nations. Other resources are the International Living Quality of Life, Doing Business Rankings and American University's Country Ranking Guide.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Protein ... and Now Fat
"The human tongue can taste more than sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein. Researchers have added fat to that list. Dr. Russell Keast, an exercise and nutrition sciences professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, told Slashfood, 'This makes logical sense. We have sweet to identify carbohydrate/sugars, and umami to identify protein/amino acids, so we could expect a taste to identify the other macronutrient: fat.' In the Deakin study, which appears in the latest issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Keast and his team gave a group of 33 people fatty acids found in common foods, mixed in with nonfat milk to disguise the telltale fat texture. All 33 could detect the fatty acids to at least a small degree."
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
This is one of the key things America is about, Free Speech
You might not agree, you might be offended, but according to the Constitution, he and everyone of us has the right to say whatever we want. Bill Balsamico, the outspoken owner of Casa D' Ice in North Versailles, PA is featured in this brand new short documentary film entitled 'Portrait of Bill'.

They would do it better
Why is that, are kids safer?
It's their History, leave'em alone

I don't agree with everything this guy posts but he does have the right to say it. (Thanks to Jerry for the headsup about this website. - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Bill To Ban All Salt In Restaurant Cooking
"Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn, introduced a bill that would ruin restaurant food and baked goods as we know them. The measure (if passed) would ban the use of all forms of salt in the preparation and cooking of food for all restaurants or bakeries. While the use of too much salt can contribute to health problems, the complete banning of salt would have negative impacts on food chemistry. Not only does salt enhance flavor, it controls bacteria, slows yeast activity and strengthens dough by tightening gluten. Salt also inhibits the growth of microbes that spoil cheese." / Assembly Bill A10129, introduced last Friday, says, "No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off the premises." The measure proposes fines of $1,000 for each violation.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Cellphone photo of Barcode yields User Product Reviews
Never buy crap again, just snap any bar code with your smart phone's camera to get buyer reviews using the Stickybits application. It lets you scan any barcode and attach a message to that physical object. If only those cheaply made products at Walmart could warn you of their inferior quality. Well now they can. StickyBits turns any bar-code into a personal message board that can be accessed by photographing the bar code with your smart phone. You can even stick your own bar-codes on any objects around town and append virtual reality data to them that other users can access. / The app is free, but stickybits sells packs of 20 vinyl barcode stickers for $10. You also can download and print your own barcodes for free, or scan an existing one on a physical product like a can of Coke. (Future business model: charge brands to claim their barcodes and place their own messages first). Each barcode is programmable by the first person who scans it and and leaves a photo, video, audio, or text message. The next time somebody scans that barcode, the previous message will appear on their phone. Anyone can add a new message to the same code, resulting in a stream of messages connected to whatever object or place the barcode is stuck on. Each scan, and related message, is geo-tagged so you can see as an object moves around how its story evolves.
- Full Article Source

03/12/10 -
Researchers Beam 230Mb/sec Wireless Internet WIth LEDs
"A group of scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have devised a way to encode a visible-frequency wireless signal in light emitted by plain old desklamps and other light fixtures. The team was able to achieve a record-setting data download rate of 230 megabits per second, and they expect to be able to double that speed in the near future. While the regular radio-frequency Wi-Fi most of us use currently is perfectly fine, it does have its flaws — it has a limited bandwidth that confines it to a certain spectrum and if you've ever had someone leech off of your connection, you know that it also leaks through walls. LED wireless signals would theoretically have none of these downsides."
- Full Article Source

03/10/10 -
Gasifying Biomass with Sunlight
Sundrop Fuels, a startup based in Louisville, CO, says it has developed a cleaner and more efficient way to turn biomass into synthetic fuels by harnessing the intense heat of the sun to vaporize wood and crop waste. Its process can produce twice the amount of gasoline or diesel per ton of biomass compared to conventional biomass gasification systems, the company claims. Gasification occurs when dry biomass or other carbon-based materials are heated to above 700 ºC in the presence of steam. At those temperatures, most of the biomass is converted to a synthetic gas. This "syngas" is made up of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which are the chemical building blocks for higher-value fuels such as methanol, ethanol, and gasoline. But the heat required for this process usually comes from a portion of the biomass being gasified. "You end up burning 30 to 35 percent of the biomass," says Alan Weimer, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
- Full Article Source

03/10/10 -
Solar Industry Learns Lessons in Spanish Sun
Puertollano, home to the Museum of the Mining Industry, had two enormous solar power plants, factories making solar panels and silicon wafers, and clean energy research institutes. Half the solar power installed globally in 2008 was installed in Spain. Farmers sold land for solar plants. Boutiques opened. And people from all over the world, seeing business opportunities, moved to the city, which had suffered from 20 percent unemployment and a population exodus. But as low-quality, poorly designed solar plants sprang up on Spain’s plateaus, Spanish officials came to realize that they would have to subsidize many of them indefinitely, and that the industry they had created might never produce efficient green energy on its own. In September the government abruptly changed course, cutting payments and capping solar construction. Puertollano’s brief boom turned bust. Factories and stores shut, thousands of workers lost jobs, foreign companies and banks abandoned contracts that had already been negotiated. “We lost the opportunity to be at the vanguard of renewables — we were not only generating electricity, but also a strong economy,” said Joaquín Carlos Hermoso Murillo, Puertollano’s mayor since 2004. “Why are they limiting solar power, when the sun is unlimited?” For now, electricity generation from the sun’s rays needs to be subsidized because it requires the purchase of new equipment and investment in evolving technologies. But costs are rapidly dropping. And regulators are still learning how to structure stimulus payments so that they yield a stable green industry that supports itself, rather than just costly energy and an economic flash in the pan like Spain’s.
- Full Article Source

03/10/10 -
Leonard Nimoy to guest on 'Big Bang'?
The executive producer of The Big Bang Theory has revealed that he hopes to recruit Leonard Nimoy for a cameo appearance. Bill Prady told Entertainment Weekly that he will approach the Star Trek actor next season about a part in the comedy. "We'll probably make a general inquiry," Prady said. "And if there's enough interest, we'll develop a story. The fans have said that's the dream get, and we agree." Nimoy, who has made several guest appearance on Fringe, turned down a spot on Big Bang last season. Prady added that "there's always an issue with actors playing themselves, which most actors would rather not do" and joked that Sheldon could clone Nimoy for the part.
- Full Article Source

03/10/10 -
Cisco Says New Router to "Forever Change the Internet": 'When?'
Cisco made headlines today announcing a next generation router that will revolutionize the internet by increasing downloads to unheard of speeds. The Cisco press release makes the following claims about the CRS-3 router: It enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.
- Full Article Source

03/10/10 -
Pelosi's latest Idiotic Statement
Nancy Pelosi said, "But we have to pass the [health care ] bill so that you can find out what is in it." - (Let's not read it all and correct it beforehand, just pass it and suffer the consequences...who isn't appalled by such faulty procedure and total lack of common sense? - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/10/10 -
U.S. Sitting on Mother Lode of Rare Tech-Crucial Minerals
China supplies most of the rare earth minerals found in technologies such as hybrid cars, wind turbines, computer hard drives and cell phones, but the U.S. has its own largely untapped reserves that could safeguard future tech innovation. Those reserves include deposits of both "light" and "heavy" rare earths - families of minerals that help make everything from TV displays to magnets in hybrid electric motors. A company called U.S. Rare Earths holds the only known U.S. deposit of heavy rare earths with a concentration worth mining, according to a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Light rare earths include the minerals ranging from lanthanum to gadolinium on the periodic table of elements, while heavy rare earths range from terbium to lutetium.
Averting disaster - If developed, such deposits could help the U.S. avoid a possibly crippling rare earth shortage in the next decade. China has warned that its own industrial demands could compel it to stop exporting rare earths within the next five or 10 years.
- Full Article Source

03/10/10 -
Fishing Banned!?!
No more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters. Nnot really a surprise for fishing industry insiders who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force. These angling advocates have come to suspect that public input into the process was a charade from the beginning. "When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario," said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano. "Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard working American families and small businesses are being ignored. "In spite of what we hear daily in the press about the President's concern for jobs and the economy and contrary to what he stated in the June order creating this process, we have seen no evidence from NOAA or the task force that recreational fishing and related jobs are receiving any priority." Consequently, unless anglers speak up and convince their Congressional representatives to stop this bureaucratic freight train, it appears that the task force will issue a final report for "marine spatial planning" by late March, with President Barack Obama then issuing an Executive Order to implement its recommendations — whatever they may be.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Growing arteries could lead to 'biological bypass' for heart disease
Coronary arteries can become blocked with plaque, leading to a decrease in the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart. Over time this blockage can lead to debilitating chest pain or heart attack. Severe blockages in multiple major vessels may require coronary artery bypass graft surgery, a major invasive surgery. "We found that there is a cross-talk between the two signaling pathways. One half of the signaling pathway inhibits the other. When we inhibit this mechanism, we are able to grow arteries," said Simons. "Instead of using growth factors, we stopped the inhibitor mechanism by using a drug that targets a particular enzyme called P13-kinase inhibitor." "Because we've located this inhibitory pathway, it opens the possibility of developing a new class of medication to grow new arteries," Simons added. "The next step is to test this finding in a human clinical trial." - (Balderdash, why must they always complicate simple things. As discovered by Matthias Rath and Linus Pauling way back in 1994, you could just clean out the plaque naturally by taking megadoses of Lysine and Vitamin C which cleans out the circulatory system. - JWD)
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03/09/10 -
“Flying Saucer” Programme Approved
Government of Ulianovsk region recently approved the long-term project of flying saucer construction. The project is aimed at developing and building a revolutionary transportation device – aerostatic thermoballasted aerial vehicle. This new vehicle doesn’t depend on time of the season and provides high lifting capacity, low fuel consumption, almost unlimited flying range and flight duration. The vehicle doesn’t need airdromes and complex terrestrial infrastructure. This project was approved by Russian government last November. New aerial vehicle is useful for military men, medics, rescuers, and etc.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Pirate Adventure Cruise
To The Point Cruise Lines is excited to offer the ultimate adventure cruise,
along the pirate-infested coast of Somalia...
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Razor Blade Tip
Today I found out how to drastically increase the life of your shaver razor blades, such as Gillette or Schick Brand razors. This trick is incredibly simple and just as incredibly effective. It will also save you a nice chunk of change over time and make all your dreams come true… For instance, Gillette Fusion Brand razor cartridge sets typically will run you about $27 per set of 12, which will typically only last you a few months and less if you actually go by their expiration "strip" in determining when the cartridge needs replaced. With the below method, I have now gone about eight months using the exact same cartridge and the blades on the cartridge are as sharp as when I first popped the cartridge on. I have no idea how long this will keep up, but now a package of 12 cartridges is apparently going to last me at least 12 years or more. Here's the secret (it requires a pair of jeans):

Before or after you shave, place your jeans on a hard flat surface; then run the razor up the pant legs about 10-15 times quickly; then repeat running it down the pant legs 10-15 times quickly. No need to press that hard, but a little pressure is necessary. In both instances, you want to point the top of the razor in the direction you are rubbing the shaver on the pants. In other words, don't "shave" the pants... - Full Article Source

'The Evolution of Matter' and 'The Evolution of Forces' on CD
Years ago, I had been told by several people, that the US government frequently removes books they deem dangerous or 'sensitive' from libraries. Some are replaced with sections removed or rewritten so as to 'contain' information that should not be available to the public despite the authors intent. A key example was during the Manhattan Project when the US was trying to finalize research into atomic bombs. They removed any books that dealt with the subject and two of them were by Dr. Gustave Le Bon since they dealt with both energy and matter including radioactivity. I had been looking for these two books for many years and fortunately stumbled across two copies for which I paid about $40.00 each. I couldn't put down the books once I started reading them. Such a wealth of original discoveries, many not known or remembered today. / Page 88 - Without the ether there could be neither gravity, nor light, nor electricity, nor heat, nor anything, in a word, of which we have knowledge. The universe would be silent and dead, or would reveal itself in a form which we cannot even foresee. If one could construct a glass chamber from which the ether were to be entirely eliminated, heat and light could not pass through it. It would be absolutely dark, and probably gravitation would no longer act on the bodies within it. They would then have lost their weight. / Page 96-97 - A material vortex may be formed by any fluid, liquid or gaseous, turning round an axis, and by the fact of its rotation it describes spirals. The study of these vortices has been the object of important researches by different scholars, notably by Bjerkness and Weyher. They have shown that by them can be produced all the attractions and repulsions recognized in electricity, the deviations of the magnetic needle by currents, etc. These vortices are produced by the rapid rotation of a central rod furnished with pallets, or, more simply, of a sphere. Round this sphere gaseous currents are established, dissymetrical with regard to its equatorial plane, and the result is the attraction or repulsion of bodies brought near to it, according to the position given to them. It is even possible, as Weyher has proved, to compel these bodies to turn round the sphere as do the satellites of a planet without touching it. / Page 149 - "The problem of sending a pencil of parallel Hertzian waves to a distance possesses more than a theoretical interest. It is allowable to say that its solution would change the course of our civilization by rendering war impossible. The first physicist who realizes this discovery will be able to avail himself of the presence of an enemy's ironclads gathered together in a harbour to blow them up in a few minutes, from a distance of several kilometres, simply by directing on them a sheaf of electric radiations. On reaching the metal wires with which these vessels are nowadays honeycombed, this will excite an atmosphere of sparks which will at once explode the shells and torpedoes stored in their holds. With the same reflector, giving a pencil of parallel radiations, it would not be much more difficult to cause the explosion of the stores of powder and shells contained in a fortress, or in the artillery sparks of an army corps, and finally the metal cartridges of the soldiers. Science, which at first rendered wars so deadly, would then at length have rendered them impossible, and the relations between nations would have to be established on new bases."
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Hybrid fusion: the third nuclear option
Hybrid nuclear fusion combines the two forms of nuclear power, fission and fusion, in a single reactor. This has several advantages over fission alone: it minimises the environmental impact, reduces risks, enlarges reserves of nuclear fuel and is more flexible to operate. Hybrid reactors have other advantages too. One is that the fission reaction can burn a range of fuels, including the long-lived high-level nuclear waste produced in conventional fission reactors. It "transmutates" these waste products into isotopes that decay over a hundred years rather than tens of thousands. Not only does this eliminate some of the nuclear industry's waste problems, it also potentially helps to rid the world of plutonium and other weapons-grade materials.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
The Arizona Solar Bullet: Tuscon to Phoenix in 33 minutes
A campaign is underway in Arizona to initiate studies and build support for the world's first solar-powered bullet train. Intended to travel at speeds up to 220 MPH, the train is proposed to run between Tucson and Phoenix with stops at seven stations along the I-10 corridor. It is also expected to have a zero-energy footprint due to its route-long solar array. Arizona may be the only place worldwide with both sufficient sunlight and sufficient population density to launch such a project today. This is a unique opportunity to benefit from the rapid growth of solar technologies in coming decades, including R&D in our own labs and companies. And once it is possible to travel swiftly between Phoenix and Tucson, economic opportunity of all kinds will accelerate.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Tata Nano EV – World’s Cheapest Electric Car - the new Model T
India’s Tata Nano EV, world’s cheapest car, transformed into the world’s cheapest electric car, went on display at the Geneva Motor Show. The Tata Nano EV seats four, has a predicted range of about 80 miles and will go from zero to about 35 miles per hour in a blistering 10 seconds. The car has super-polymer lithium-ion batteries, which Tata says provide superior energy retention.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
At Witz' End - It's the Battery, Stupid!
The Volt has long been rumored to retail for about $40K, and the Leaf will likely come in at a hair under $30K (now that Nissan has decided it will be sold battery included). The Volt should run about 40 miles on its 16 kWh pack – using just half its stored energy to head off safety issues and preserve its life – before its thrifty IC engine kicks in to keep it going. The Leaf promises "up to" 100 miles from its 24 kWh, depending (as always) on temperature, terrain, time of day, speed and driving style. The going OEM rate for li-ion packs today is an estiimated $1,000-1,200 per kWh. At the lower end of that range, Volt's pack is a $16K bill and Leaf's $24K -- 80 percent of (my) estimated price for the car. Both companies insist they will not pay anywhere near that much, especially once they're building their own packs, but lop that in half to $500/kWh, and it's still $8K and $12K!
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Preventing Urination to control disease-spreading mosquitoes
Cornell researchers have found a protein that may lead to a new way to control mosquitoes that spread dengue fever, yellow fever and other diseases when they feed on humans: Prevent them from urinating as they feed on blood. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology has identified a protein from the renal tubules of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that appears to be involved in promoting urination as they feed on blood. When mosquitoes consume and process blood meals, they must urinate to prevent fluid and salt overloads that can kill them. Also, "they have to undergo rapid urination when feeding, or they can't fly away," said Peter Piermarini, the paper's lead author and a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Klaus Beyenbach, a professor of biomedical sciences in Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine and the paper's senior author. "Too much weight will impair the mosquito's flight performance, like an aircraft with too much payload. [If they get too heavy,] they may become more susceptible to being swatted by their host or eaten by a predator," said Piermarini. The researchers discovered a key protein expressed in the mosquito's renal system that contributes to urination. In lab experiments, Piermarini, Beyenbach and colleagues demonstrated that blocking the protein's function in the renal tubules with a drug reverses the enhanced rates of urination that would occur during blood feeding. "Thus, blocking the function of this protein in natural populations of mosquitoes may limit their ability to survive the physiological stresses of a blood meal and to further transmit viruses," said Piermarini.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Link Between Obesity and Germs in the Intestine
Germs in the gut may help drive appetite, says new research into the link between obesity and bacteria. Previous studies have shown that overweight people and normal-weight people harbor different types and amounts of microbes that naturally live in the intestine. To determine why, scientists are peering into mice.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Mattel Mindflex hack shocks you into serenity
Okay, we're in love with this delightfully evil Mattel Mindflex hack, which delivers an electric shock if you don't remain calm, but we have to wonder: wouldn't this thing be amazing if you hooked it up in reverse and punished not thinking enough? / The guys over at Harcos Labs connect a brainwave reader to an electro-shock unit. Ouch! You can read the how-to on our site: http://www.harcoslabs.com
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Frozen Vegetables More Nutritious Than Fresh Vegetables
Frozen vegetables can often contain more nutrients than fresh vegetables, a report has claimed. Up to 45 per cent of important nutrients are lost in fresh vegetable by the time they are consumed.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
This Car Runs on Coffee
The wacky UK invention comes in the form of a converted 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco that downs about 56 espressos per mile, the Daily Mail reports. That should only cost about 25 to 50 times the cost of running a car on gas. The concept came out of the BBC1 science program called "Bang Goes the Theory," and will go on a 210-mile drive between Manchester and London that consumes about 11,760 espressos. But coffee aficionados shouldn't scream just yet -- the fuel comes from waste coffee grounds provided by a branch of Costa Coffee. A top speed of about 60 mph won't save the UK crew from making pit stops to refill the tank every 30 to 45 miles. There's also the added task of cleaning out soot and tar from the car's "coffee filters" about every 60 miles.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Lack of Vitamin D supresses the immune system
Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that Vitamin D is crucial to activating your immune defenses and that without sufficient intake of the vitamin, the killer cells of your immune system – T cells - will not be able to react to and fight off serious infections in your body. For your T cells to detect and kill foreign pathogens such as clumps of bacteria or viruses, the cells must first be 'triggered' into action and 'transform' from inactive and harmless immune cells into killer cells that are primed to seek out and destroy all traces of a foreign pathogen. The researchers found that T cells rely on vitamin D in order to activate and they would remain dormant, 'naive' to the possibility of threat if vitamin D is lacking in your blood.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
New "Hairy" Material Is Almost Perfectly Hydrophobic
"Wolfgang Sigmund, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Florida, has created a material modeled after spider hairs that acts as a nearly perfect water-repelling surface. Quoting Science Daily: 'A paper about the surface, which works equally well with hot or cold water, appears in this month's edition of the journal Langmuir. Spiders use their water-repelling hairs to stay dry or avoid drowning, with water spiders capturing air bubbles and toting them underwater to breathe. Potential applications for UF's ultra-water-repellent surfaces are many, Sigmund said. When water scampers off the surface, it picks up and carries dirt with it, in effect making the surface self-cleaning. As such, it is ideal for some food packaging, or windows, or solar cells that must stay clean to gather sunlight, he said. Boat designers might coat hulls with it, making boats faster and more efficient.' Hairy glass, anyone?"
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Revolutionary Invention Allows Planting Without Irrigation
The Groasis waterboxx invented by science award winning Dutch innovator Pieter Hoff is about to change the course of history. On March 16 at the Green California Summit in Sacramento, Mr. Hoff. will announce global planting experiments without irrigation. Four projects to be conducted in California's high and low deserts of Palm Springs, in the Napa Valley with the Robert Mondavi Winery and USA's first sustainable city, Sonoma will join twenty other global experiments in seven countries spanning four continents. Mr. Hoff completed a four-year treeplanting test in Morocco's Sahara desert with 88.2% survival rate. Monitored results of the worldwide tests will prove that mankind can plant trees on bushes, rocks, mountains, in deserts or any other difficult place, without irrigation. California along with the rest of the world eagerly looks forward to the results of these tests as a way to solve deforestation, food shortage and water conservation. The Groasis waterboxx is the size of a motorcycle tyre with an opening in the center, that surrounds a sapling or seed that is planted in the soil. This 'intelligent water incubator' produces and captures water from the air through condensation and rain, without using energy. Additionally it prevents water evaporation from the soil and protects the roots against sun, wind, weeds and rodents. After a year, the tree is strong enough to grow by itself and the box can be easily removed and reused. Hoff, one of the largest flowerbulb exporters of Holland, sold his business five years ago with one thought in mind, to find a way to reforest the planet and feed the world. He expects the waterboxx to reforest 2 billion hectares (5 billion acres) of desert, eroded by mankind, in the next 40 years. CO2 molecules can be unbound through trees, which produce fruit, medicines, oils, etcetera while transplanting the C atoms from fossil fuels into wood. Let's make money with trees while unbinding the CO2 molecules instead of continuously talking about climate change, he explains in his book 'CO2, a gift from heaven'. General: http://www.groasis.com
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
MIT discovers thermopower waves
A team of scientists at MIT have discovered a previously unknown phenomenon that can cause powerful waves of energy to shoot through minuscule wires known as carbon nanotubes. The discovery could lead to a new way of producing electricity, the researchers say. One that seems perfectly suited for powering implants, wearware or pocket gear. The phenomenon, described as thermopower waves, 'opens up a new area of energy research, which is rare,' says MIT's Michael Strano. A thermal wave (moving pulse of heat) traveling along a microscopic wire can drive electrons along to create an electrical current. / In the new experiments, each of these electrically and thermally conductive nanotubes was coated with a layer of a reactive fuel that can produce heat by decomposing. This fuel was then ignited at one end of the nanotube using either a laser beam or a high-voltage spark, and the result was a fast-moving thermal wave traveling along the length of the carbon nanotube like a flame speeding along the length of a lit fuse. Heat from the fuel goes into the nanotube, where it travels thousands of times faster than in the fuel itself. As the heat feeds back to the fuel coating, a thermal wave is created that is guided along the nanotube. With a temperature of 3,000 kelvins, this ring of heat speeds along the tube 10,000 times faster than the normal spread of this chemical reaction. The heating produced by that combustion, it turns out, also pushes electrons along the tube, creating a substantial electrical current. In the group’s initial experiments, Strano says, when they wired up the carbon nanotubes with their fuel coating in order to study the reaction, “lo and behold, we were really surprised by the size of the resulting voltage peak” that propagated along the wire. After further development, the system now puts out energy, in proportion to its weight, about 100 times greater than an equivalent weight of lithium-ion battery. The amount of power released, he says, is much greater than that predicted by thermoelectric calculations. While many semiconductor materials can produce an electric potential when heated, through something called the Seebeck effect, that effect is very weak in carbon. “There’s something else happening here,” he says. “We call it electron entrainment, since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.” The thermal wave, he explains, appears to be entraining the electrical charge carriers (either electrons or electron holes) just as an ocean wave can pick up and carry a collection of debris along the surface. This important property is responsible for the high power produced by the system, Strano says.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Stem cells heal dog
Your dog has access to stem cell treatments more advanced than your own. A Fox News affiliate in Atlanta has picked up on a local story of a dog, named Behr, who could barely run a year ago, but who is now frolicking like a puppy. The secret to Behr’s success? He underwent stem cell therapy that the FDA will not allow you to undergo. Millions of Americans are already doomed annually to unnecessary pain, suffering and death by FDA regulators. The ranks of sufferers are exploding because FDA regs make personalized genetic medicine all but impossible.
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
New invention saves energy by temp redistribution
Three-and-a-half years ago Paddle Fan Adapter inventor Tony Anchors was looking at a ceiling fan when he noticed an issue with air distribution. "It just throws it out and goes off the end of the blade and it rises back up," he said. With the warm air continuously rising, energy and money is wasted to keep the ground level at a comfortable temperature. Anchors created a casing that uses the fan's power to push and cube the air sending it down and then spreading across the floor- destratifying heat, humidity and carbon dioxide. "We've caused that blade, that fan, rather than throw it off to keep and come straight down and we've found that the reduction of energy costs and savings is very big," he said. Those backing the invention, including 5 B's Lee Biles, had it lab tested and tested in real life by installing the adapter at the 5B's production warehouse. They tested by putting censors on the ceiling, middle and floor of 5B's. Those sensors send information to thermometers throughout the warehouse which shows there's only about a one-degree temperature difference. "It's a very, very big savings. In fact that calculates out to about $2790 in a three month period based on consumption and degree days for our part of the country," said Biles. In testing the adapter has shown a 8 to 10 percent savings in warm weather and 15 to 30 percent in cold. "I can tell you it's in the 30 percent range for our plant, 30 percent reduction in energy costs. I don't want everybody to expect that, you know, because everybody has different conditions, but I'm getting a 30 percent reduction in energy costs," said Biles. The adapter will go on sale this week, and everyone involved is hoping it takes off. "It's winter somewhere in the world all the time and this can save big dollars for our country and our world and help maybe reduce consumption of a lot of energy," said Anchors. To learn more about this invention log onto www.paddlefanadapter.com. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Praying mantis vs. hummingbird
A rivalry I never knew about, captured in glorious slow motion. Science blogger GrrlScientist says the hummingbird involved lived to fight another day. EDIT: Sadly, that is not true of all hummingbirds that choose to take on the (apparently rather badass) praying mantis. Mrs.Bug offers pictures of what happens when the bird loses. They are not for the faint of heart.
- Full Article Source

j
Bonus Cannibal Plant

03/09/10 -
Disposable Toilet To Change the World
"A biodegradable and self-sterilizing bag for people of the toilet-disenfranchised world (40% of humankind) to dispose of their bodily waste and turn it into safe fertilizer has been created by a Swedish entrepreneur. It's a dead simple and brilliant solution to a vexing problem. From the article: 'Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces. The bag, called the Peepoo, is the brainchild of Anders Wilhelmson, an architect and professor in Stockholm. “Not only is it sanitary,” said Mr. Wilhelmson, who has patented the bag, “they can reuse this to grow crops.”'"
- Full Article Source

03/09/10 -
Gas Wants To Kill the Wind
"Scientific American has posted an article about the political efforts of natural gas and electric utilities to limit the growth of wind-generated electricity. Although several of the points raised by the utilities and carbon-based generators are valid, the basic driver behind their efforts is that wind-generation has now successfully penetrated the wholesale electricity market. Wind was okay until it became a meaningful competitor to the carbon dioxide-producing entities. Among the valid points raised by the carbon-based generators are concerns about how the cost of electricity transmission are allocated and how power quality can be improved (wind generation — from individual sites — is hopelessly variable). But there are fixes for all of the concerns raised by the carbon-based entities and in almost all cases they have been on the other side of the question in the past."
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Hydrogen Cobalt Catalyst could power homes on a bottle of water
With one bottle of drinking water and four hours of sunlight, MIT chemist Dan Nocera claims that he can produce 30 KWh of electricity, which is enough to power an entire household in the developing world. With about three gallons of river water, he could satisfy the daily energy needs of a large American home. The key to these claims is a new, affordable catalyst that uses solar electricity to split water and generate hydrogen. Using the electricity generated from a 30-square-meter photovoltaic array, Nocera’s cobalt-phosphate catalyst converts water and carbon dioxide into hydrogen and oxygen. The process is similar to organic photosynthesis, except that in nature, plants create energy in the form of sugars instead of hydrogen. The hydrogen produced through artificial photosynthesis can be stored in a tank and later used to produce electricity by being recombined with oxygen in a fuel cell, even when the sun isn’t shining. Alternatively, the hydrogen can be converted into a liquid fuel. - (Thanks to Bert Pool for the headsup. - JWD)
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Is GEK a modern-day Mr. Fusion?
[Nanomonkey] spent the weekend building generators that run off of syngas. All Powers Lab produces Gasifier Experimenter Kits to convert raw material to energy. The kits use Gasification to make a “natural gas like” fuel from materials such as wood chips, walnut shells, construction debris or agricultural waste. So is this the Mr. Fusion that powered the DeLorean? This Honda fitted with a GEK sure makes it look that way. But all joking aside, this looks like a great way to turn waste in heat or electricity. There’s tons of info on the site to dig through. The controllers are open source which would make it easier to interface with the Google PowerMeter when the system is used as a generator.
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Electro Dynamic Air Vehicle using Vortices
As a civilization, we have always tried to create horsepower using methods surrounding combustion. The opposite of combustion is vacuum. The areas of vacuum have least to be explored for extracting great quantities of energy. Now a quote by Dr. TJJ See, “ The centrifugal effect in a vortex throws normal dense air out to the perimeter whilst lighter air is pushed to the center.” See my illustrations 1 & 2 on how this light air encapsulates the vehicle. Using this analogy we have now encircled the aircraft Vehicle with a bubble of light air which causes it to levitate. Lets talk about the opposite effect and use water as an example. Once there was an oilrig floating on the ocean. The drillers hit a huge gas pocket that sent up bubbles 50 feet in diameter. Soon there was no water underneath the platform, only ever expanding gas bubbles. So the huge oil platform sank into the ocean. Why, because the gas bubbles displaced so much water fluid the platform had nothing to hold it up. Well just maybe, if you displace so much light air around the object than the object has no heavier resistant air or air pressure to hold it on the ground and bon voyage. As the aircraft is sucked into the air by the upside down vortex, then the aircraft pushes the vortex further out, which creates a pulsing effect. Velocity is squared by the distance and speed becomes reality. Now the aircraft has to go horizontal sooner or later or you might find yourself on planet Marduk in no time. The light hydrogen air vortex will flatten out slightly but will continue to flow ahead of the aircraft. This vortex flow will continue to separate the denser air away from the air vehicle creating a sort of vacuum bubble for the aircraft to ride in. See my illustration dubbed PG 140 which shows a circulating air current riding ahead of a UFO. Also see Illustration three, showing the sucking and pushing effect of the closing envelope. Was the UFO using repulsion energy? Any ways since the lighter fluid or gas is cutting the denser air as stated no sound barrier is broken, and no air resistance is felt on the aircraft. So the aircraft is free to obtain velocities not achieved by aircraft previously. A pushing effect is applied at the rear by the closing air gap. I quote again the words of V. Schauberger, “ If you create a situation where normal air is more dense than the air directly above or ahead of the vehicle, the normal air will move the craft.”
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Lucid dreaming
When we saw [merkz] use of an Arduino to produce lucid dreaming we were quite shocked. Unlike typical setups that just flash a light through sleep, his system monitors eye movement through electrodes and is able to send the data to a computer for graphing and analyzing. The only problem being we couldn’t find a circuit diagram or code. Not ones to be shot down so quickly, a Google revealed this thread on making ‘Dream Goggles’, which was really a Brain-Wave Machine based on the parallel port. Some modifications of an ECG collector’s electrodes using sound cards, and you could have your own lucid dreaming.
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Debunking the Myth that Patents Create a Monopoly
Those who are against patents always seem to argue that a patent is a monopoly, or at least use those terms interchangeably. Don’t be fooled into thinking that a patent is a monopoly. Simply obtaining a patent will not result in the arrival of a money truck to your doorstep. Just because an inventor has been granted a patent does not mean that there will be a market for the patent product, and without a market there can be no monopoly. The patent only gives the patent owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling and importing. A patent carries with it no expectation for market success. Granted, if the product does have a market a patent can be a significant barrier to entry that insulates the patent owner from competition, but a patent in and of itself does not guarantee business success. A patent only dangles the opportunity to achieve monopoly profits. This is due to the exclusive nature of the right and the ability to be the only player in the market.
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Fiverr.com
Hire yourself out or hire someone else for $5 a job. Someone is offering to make a personalized work of art from your photo. Another wants to make you an Alice in Wonderland poster. There’s also a translator from English to Finnish. And hundreds more. ( props to http://oncomp.com/ )
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Brain Scans predict consumer response for ad campaigns
Labeling their new science 'neuromarketing', researchers at Duke University and Emory University say they have developed techniques for utilizing brain scans during product design that can create products consumers will find too appealing to pass up. Tools like functional MRI can be used to tweak product designs to insure a positive customer buy response.
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Cellphone shows your current location with 93% accuracy
Using only the cell phone call and message data from 50,000 anonymous users over a three-month period, researchers were able to accurately predict each individual current location with a 93% rate of accuracy. Big Brother no longer needs to watch you, your cell phone is doing it for them.
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Ah, to be young!!!
"Can I Get Get Get" (Greatest Song of All Time of the Day: Special Saturday Night Dance Party Edition)
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03/06/10 -
TV anywhere
TVGorge.com has thousands of TV shows you can watch online, including those previously unavailable outside the U.S. We thought TVGorge was better than Hulu in many ways. It had the latest episode of our favorite show, “The Mentalist,” for instance, while Hulu had only short clips of older episodes. ( props to http://oncomp.com/ )
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
Saddam's magic blue stone
(The pictured stone is not THE stone.) - According to an interesting article by Sudarsan Raghavan for Mercury News, many Iraqis believe that Saddam Hussein cannot be killed. It is a belief that has been reinforced by his uncanny ability to survive whatever bombs we drop on him. Even now that he has been captured, many Iraqis remain convinced that Saddam is immortal. What gives him this mystical power? A magic blue stone. Saddam had this magic stone made, so the story goes, by his favorite fortuneteller not long after he came to power 24 years ago. To be sure the stone was effective, it was tested first with a chicken. The stone was somehow placed inside the chicken, then a soldier fired at it at point-blank range. All of its feathers were blown off, but the protected chicken survived. So Saddam had the magic stone implanted in the upper section of one of his arms, protecting him from any assault, including bullets and bombs. "That belief," writes Raghaven in the article, "common throughout Iraq, presents uncommon challenges for U.S. and British forces as they try to persuade Iraqis that Saddam is gone and will not return. Without a body to display, it may be impossible to overcome the mythical creation of a propaganda apparatus that was bent on showing he was a worthy heir to a long line of Babylonian kings." An Iraqi army deserter named Adnan Mohammad Yousef told Raghaven that Saddam has seven lives and cannot die. He illustrated that belief with a story about an attempted assassination of Saddam by one of his Republican Guard. When the soldier pointed the gun at the dictator and pulled the trigger, it jammed. Saddam then allegedly grabbed the gun, pointed it at the soldier, saying, "This is how you do it," and shot him dead.
- Full Article Source

03/06/10 -
New Heat-Reduced Magnetic Solder Could Revolutionize Chip Design
"The result is a tin-silver alloy that contains a dispersion of iron particles tens of micrometers in diameter. When a magnetic field is applied to the solders, two things happen. First, the iron particles heat up, locally melting the solder. This localized heating, which works on the same principle as inductive stoves, remains completely contained, keeping the surrounding area cool. And second, the iron particles line up with the direction of the magnetic field, squeezing and pushing the liquid in that direction. This alignment is retained when the solder solidifies, and the well-ordered particles provide mechanical reinforcement that's greater than that afforded by a regular dispersion of particles."
- Full Article Source

03/05/10 -
Rube Goldberg eat your heart out!
The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The "machine" was designed and built by the band, along with members of Syyn Labs ( http://syynlabs.com/ ) over the course of several months.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
New Zealand inventor creates 'flying hovercraft'
Rudy Heeman, who lives in the South Island city of Nelson, requisitioned a gas bottle from the family barbecue, parts from his wife's car, and the control lever from his daughter's motor scooter for his creation. Looking like a conventional hovercraft but with the addition of detachable wings, the vehicle cruises at 56mph when flying, has a range of more than 140 miles, and reaches a height of about 10 feet. It is powered by a 1.8-litre engine. On the www.trademe.co.nz auction website the sale has already received more than 100,000 hits, has shot past the reserve price of NZ$20,000 (£9,300), and has attracted a long string of questions from viewers. "It has been called all sorts of things, including aircraft, aeroplane, hovercraft and flying boat. "It is in fact a WIG [a wing in ground effect] in the form of a hovercraft. "This machine is fast and furious, it roars like a lion and is not for the faint-hearted. It is adrenalin-pumping and exciting. "Having a go on it is like a bungee jump, however, the thrill lasts as long as the ride." Mr Heeman said he thought farmers could make good use of his invention. "You can land in a paddock and you wouldn't have to worry about opening and closing the gates. You just go over them." The lightweight, canvas-covered wings are attached to the craft with what he calls a "Jesus pin". "If that comes out, you see Jesus," he said. Because the hovercraft is not classed as an aircraft under New Zealand aviation laws, the operator does not require a pilot's licence. It has taken Mr Heeman, a mechanic, 800 hours to build his invention and he has clocked up more than 75 hours' flying time in it. He said he was selling the craft because he needs the funds to get started on more "secret projects".
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
A Frightening New Law of Hurricane Formation
A new mathematical model of hurricane formation finally solves one of the outstanding puzzles of climate change but also predicts dramatic increases in the number of storms as the world warms. One problem that climatologists have puzzled over in recent years is that the number of hurricanes have increased in the north Atlantic but not in the Pacific, despite similar temperature increases. Many say that this is proof that other factors must influence hurricane formation. However, there's an important difference between these regions: in the Atlantic, the water tends to be cooler to start with and the hurricanes tend to form at a slightly higher latitude. When you take this into account, the difference in the number of hurricanes is exactly what Ehrlich's model predicts. He says the specific form of his mathematical model "yields larger percentage increases when a fixed increase in sea surface temperature occurs at higher latitudes and lower temperatures". That could help to solve an important climate change puzzle but before greater reliance can be placed on Ehrlich's, it needs to show its colours by accurately forecasting the numbers of hurricanes in the next few years. Its predictions do not make for pleasant reading. The exponent of 3.5 in Ehrlich's power law means that numbers of hurricanes should increase sharply as the world warms and much more dramatically than climatologists have been expecting. His prediction is that a 2 degree C increase in average temperature will lead to an 11-fold increase in the number of hurricanes. And the increase in numbers of hurricanes is only part of the story, he says. "An eleven-fold increase in hurricanes at a particular location would just be one part of the story, which would include (1) a potentially larger increase in the total number of hurricanes given the increase in the size of the basin as temperatures rise, (2) an increase in the destructive potential of each hurricane, and (3) an increase in the height of the storm surge due to rising sea levels that would invariably occur in a warmer world." Frightening stuff.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Scaling Up Solar Power
Applied materials makes the equipment needed to produce the biggest solar panels in the world. Applied Materials now sells a complete set of equipment for transforming large glass panels into thin-film solar cells, transporting it to manufacturers in several shipping containers. The company claims that each factory using its equipment can produce enough solar cells every year to generate 80 megawatts of power, enough to provide energy for 35,000 U.S. homes during peak hours of electricity use. The process of building the solar panels themselves starts with glass sheets 2.2 by 2.6 meters in area and only 3.2 millimeters thick. These come to a factory precoated with a micrometer-­thick film of a trans­parent conductive metal oxide that will serve as the top electrical contact in the finished panel. A robotic arm shaped like the business end of a forklift loads the delicate glass sheet onto the metal rollers of a conveyor belt, which moves it through a cleaner and then through a seamer that reinforces its edges to prevent chipping during manufacturing. The panel then travels through a machine called a laser scribe, which carves lines through the conductive coating to define the boundarie­s of each of 216 cells on the panel. The panel is now ready to be coated with two silicon films that will absorb sunlight and convert its energy into electrical current. First is a layer of amorphous silicon, which strongly absorbs light from the blue end of the spectrum. A second robotic arm slides the panel into the airlock of an apparatus called a plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition chamber. Inside, the air is pumped out; silane, a gas composed of silicon and hydrogen, is pumped in and ionized. In the resulting reaction, the gas decomposes, depositing the silicon uniformly on the glass. Conveyer belts and robots then move each panel down the line to one of three additional vapor deposition chambers, where it is coated with a film of multi­crystalline silicon. This layer absorbs red light, allowing the panels to take advantage of more of the energy in sunlight. F­orming multi­crystalline silicon takes time and care, but having three systems perform this step on different panels in parallel keeps it from slowing down the entire manufacturing process. Because of their large area, the modules have among the highest power outputs in the industry--about 500 watts. The large size leads to savings on installation costs that help the panels compete with other thin-film systems on the market. The cost of electricity generated by the giant panels is $3.50 a watt, including installation. Panels of this size are best suited for use in massive ground-based solar farms.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
FanWing is like a harvester in the sky
The FanWing aircraft concept has been around for a while but this is the first time we’ve seen working models. It gets rid of the propeller and adopts a rotating cylinder for propulsion. The look reminds us of a combine harvester and in a way it does reap the air, pulling the craft through the sky. We’re not holding our breath for the decommission of jet propulsion in the wake of this method, but we’d love to see some fun-loving death from above whenever you can get your own off the ground. Check out the video clips after the break to see, and hear, this in action.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Spy cameras won't make us safer
Although it's comforting to imagine vigilant police monitoring every camera, the truth is very different, for a variety of reasons: technological limitations of cameras, organizational limitations of police and the adaptive abilities of criminals. No one looks at most CCTV footage until well after a crime is committed. And when the police do look at the recordings, it's very common for them to be unable to identify suspects. Criminals don't often stare helpfully at the lens and -- unlike the Dubai assassins -- tend to wear sunglasses and hats. Cameras break far too often. The important question isn't whether cameras solve past crime or deter future crime; it's whether they're a good use of resources. They're expensive, both in money and in their Orwellian effects on privacy and civil liberties. Their inevitable misuse is another cost; police have spied on naked women in their own homes, shared nude images, sold best-of videos and even spied on national politicians. Though we might be willing to accept these downsides for a real increase in security, cameras don't provide that.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Monocle fixes webcam farsightedness
[Vik Oliver] came up with a webcam focus fix that is so quick and simple we never would have thought of it. He received the webcam as a gift and mounted on an articulated lamp so that it could easily be positioned around his projects. The problem is the camera lacks a focus adjustment so the close-up shots were blurry. In what we consider a eureka moment, he sourced a pair of dollar store reading glasses to fix the optics. The glasses came with their own mounting bracket. He clipped them in half and wrapped the wire ear support around the camera body. Great hacks don’t have to be complicated, and we need to do a better job of looking at the dollar store for project parts!
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
The Curse Of Making Too Much Money And Not Pursuing Your Dreams
The luckiest people on earth are those who don’t make a lot of money. They’ve got very little downside and can really pursue their childhood dreams. Imagine if from the moment you graduated college, you landed a plum corporate job that paid just enough to keep you motivated, but not enough to enjoy your freedom. The longer you work the more you realize there’s really no escape, because there’s simply too much at stake. This is the problem that plagues my friend, Lyndon.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Tetrahedral Water
In the liquid state, every water molecule fleetingly interacts with its four nearest neighbors, forming a tetrahedron, explains Kumar. These tetrahedrons, however, are slightly imperfect and the degree to which they are changes as temperature and pressure change, ultimately affecting which individual water molecules partner up with each other. Kumar found that it is the fluctuations in the degree of tetrahedrality that contribute most to one of water's most notable and valuable features -- its capacity to resist heating or cooling and thereby regulating and maintaining the temperature of biological systems. The ability to measure water's shifting degrees of tetrahedrality also gives scientists a means of measuring how much order or disorder each water molecule imparts. The better the tetrahedron, the more order it imparts in the system. "What we have done essentially is define the structural entropy of every molecule in our system," says Kumar. "And since water molecules are constantly moving in space and time, this gives you a way to study the transport of entropy associated with local tetrahedrality -- something that has never been done before." Understanding how individual water molecules maneuver in a system to form fleeting tetrahedral structures and how changing physical conditions such as temperatures and pressures affect the amount of disorder each imparts on that system may help scientists understand why certain substances, like drugs used in chemotherapy, are soluble in water and why some are not. It could also help understand how this changing network of bonds and ordering of local tetrahedrality between water molecules changes the nature of protein folding and degradation. "Understanding hydrophobicity, and how different conditions change it, is probably one of the most fundamental components in understanding how proteins fold in water and how different biomolecules remain stable in it," says Kumar.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Wi-Fi finders let thieves track down hidden laptops
Stuffing your company laptop into the car trunk or even a locker, without turning off its Wi-Fi radio, can be an open invitation to thieves, according to Credant Technologies. Theives with increasingly sophisticated, directional Wi-Fi detectors can home in on the laptop's radio, tracking it down even when the PC is hidden away. The detectors, sometimes called "Wi-Fi finders," are readily and inexpensively available. But many of them simply register the presence and strength of Wi-Fi signals, such as those from public hotspots. USBFever, for example, offers for $14 a ballpoint pen with a built-in radio detector for 802.11b/g radios. ThinkGeek.com offers the "Digital Wi-Fi Detector", which can scan signals over a 200-foot distance, priced at $50. Depending on the features, the detector may not be very helpful in finding a precise location, for example, an active laptop radio in an automobile parked with a lot of others.But Hawking Technologies' Hi-Gain WiFi Locator Professional Edition includes a high-gain antenna that can more precisely locate a Wi-Fi radio. It is priced at $50. Sean Glynn, Credant's vice president of marketing, said in a press release that some number of users close the cover of the laptop without realizing there may be a delay of 30 minutes before it shifts into sleep mode. The Wi-Fi radio remains on, detectable by a scanner. The solution is simple, he says: make sure you shut off the radio.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Sued For Removing Lawn
Some Southern California cities fine residents for watering their lawns too much during droughts. But in Orange, officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for removing their lawn in an attempt to save water. The dispute began two years ago, when Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their frontyard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water -- and hundreds of dollars -- each year. They said they were trying to do something good for the environment. But city officials told the Has they were violating several city laws that require residents to cover significant portions of their frontyards with live ground cover. On Tuesday, the couple is scheduled to appear in Orange County Superior Court to challenge the city's lawsuit against them.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Movies the perfect medium to beam up new inventions, says researcher
FLIP phones, video conferencing and super adhesive devices are just some of the many fanciful ideas portrayed in movies, only to become reality years later. A Sydney scientist says such examples are exactly why scientists should be encouraging film directors to be ''bolder and more daring'' when crafting science fiction, rather than reining them in, as some scientists claim. Mary-Anne Williams, director of the innovation and enterprise research laboratory at the University of Technology, Sydney, said it was ''ludicrous that scientists, of all people, would attempt to impose their view of what is possible, especially when there have been spectacular instances of the seemingly impossible suddenly becoming possible''. Take the invisibility cloak. It is every child's dream to vanish into thin air like Harry Potter. In 2008 scientists in the US brought that dream closer to reality when they invented a material that makes light bend away from it. Video conferencing is another example. Skype may seem ordinary now but in the 1960s when the Jetsons started communicating with people face to face remotely, the technology was seen as wishful thinking. And flip phone-style ''communicators'' were used by the characters in Star Trek long before they became a trendy type of mobile phone. In fact, episodes of Star Trek prompted the invention of many modern gadgets, said Djomyi Baker, of the University of Melbourne, who watched more than 700 episodes of Star Trek and its spin-offs for her PhD. Translators, automatic doors, voice recognition and portable data storage devices were all featured in the series. ''Most of the banal things like mobile phones and automatic doors we take from granted were very futuristic at the time,'' she said. Dr Baker said Star Trek also inspired doctors to develop a novel technique of administering drugs. Instead of piercing the skin with a needle, Star Trekkers are dosed up with a ''medical hypospray'' that absorbs through the skin. Doctors in Australia have since developed a prototype of the technology. The transporter from Star Trek, which moves people from one place to another by disintegrating the atoms that make up the body and recombining them in a different location, had been called the most outlandish idea, she said. But since then scientists have transported a particle of light. ''That's far more simplistic than moving a human being but the concept is there.''
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03/04/10 -
Inventor wins $15-million verdict against Home Depot
A former Boca Raton, Fla., man won a $15-million (U.S.) verdict Wednesday from a jury that found hardware giant Home Depot (HD-N31.470.110.35%) willfully stole his invention for a saw guard that keeps employees' hands safe. “Good. Very good,” Michael Powell said, describing how he felt minutes after the jury announced its decision. Because the jury of four women and three men found that the Atlanta-based company had acted willfully, Mr. Powell's attorneys said they will ask U.S. District Court Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley to triple the jury award. The dispute began in 2004 when Home Depot officials contacted Mr. Powell, asking him to figure out a way to improve the safety of radial saws used to cut wood for customers. Concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring, the CEO of Home Depot ordered that safety be improved by the end of 2004, his attorney, Peter Herman said during closing arguments. Company officials liked the “Safe Hands” gadget Mr. Powell ultimately invented, Mr. Herman said. Home Depot purchased eight of them for stores in Los Angeles and Atlanta. Officials told him they'd like to buy the devices for each of their 2,000 stores for $1,200 apiece. After Mr. Powell balked at the price, they contacted another company to produce the safety equipment. Home Depot attorneys countered that he had signed an agreement in which he would share ideas and products with them. Further, they said, his invention wasn't unique and he didn't patent it properly.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Magnetic Migraine Relief
Researchers found that people who suffered from migraine 'with aura', when spots in front of the eyes or pins and needles precede the headache, can benefit from the treatment. A team from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, America, gave 200 migraine sufferers identical devices, made by Neuralieve in California, to use when they felt a migraine coming on. The study published in Lancet Neurology found in half of them the device delivered a magnetic pulse and the others buzzed and vibrated in the same way but did not produce a pulse. After two hours 40 per cent of those with the real device said they did not have any pain compared with 22 per cent of those with the sham device. There were no side effects and the patients found the device easy to use. The effect lasted for 48 hours. "Our findings are relevant in view of the disabling nature of migraine. For patients who commonly have aura as a signal of an impending migraine, treatment with sTMS may abort progression of the attack and abate disabling pain and other symptoms." It is not known how the device affects migraine as the causes of the headaches are still under investigation but it is thought to disrupt the electrical signals in the brain. Even though the device is small and portable, slightly smaller than a shoebox, patients could use it at home it would not fit in a handbag, for example.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Batting Simulator Invention helps Red Sox win
Jay Russo, the managing director for Sports Vision Technologies in Maine, is in Fort Myers, Florida with the Red Sox, pitching the company's new batting simulator. Russo says the Sox batting coach, Dave Magadan, was so impressed with the invention, he claims the Sox would have made it to the World series with its help. The technology measures everything that's happening with the bat, from a hitter's resting position right through impact.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Invention to help locate Lost or Misplaced Items
The Dot 2 Dot Object Locator would enable a user to locate small household or personal items quickly and easily. This navigating device would eliminate the daily frustration resulting from lost items. Designed for do-it-yourself and commercial use, the invention would be simple to use and could provide a way of finding a specific item among many similar items or "look-alikes." The invention would consist of both a transmitter and receiver devices. The transceiver consists of a circular disk that could be enclosed in a variety of attachments. Each "dot" contains both the transmitter and receiver, and each dot in the pair can signal the other. To use, an individual would affix one dot to a personal item such as a calculator or power tool and presses a button on the other dot. One of the dots would be triggered by signal to emit an audible or visual alert.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Listening device aimed to make TV viewing easier in bars, restaurants
The system has been tested with as many as 30 TVs in a single room. With his technology, each of them can be heard independently using a small device that is about the size of an Ipod. Headphones plug into the listening device, which receives sound through waves of light that aren’t visible to the human eye. “It is wireless,” said Hintzen, 60, who lives on Fort Myers Beach. “But we do not use radio waves.” He had to wait for technology to evolve to develop his product. “Each TV set has a very little box, a wave generator, that puts out the waves of light with the sound encoded on it,” he explained. The wave generators are part of his invention, which has 21 system-level patent claims. His invention, he said, is ideal for sports bars where fans gather to watch their favorite teams play. Without the Wavrydr, a sports bar may only turn up the volume on one or two games. With the system, customers can listen to any game that’s playing on any TV. The device has two jacks so two people can listen to the same program on one receiver. The Wavryder system uses less than 10 cents of electricity a day, Hintzen said. It’s being offered to businesses for about $150 a month through a lease-to-own program. After 60 months, they could own it. The idea is that it will keep customers in bars and restaurants longer, leading to more food and drink sales. “It’s very, very cost effective,” Hintzen said of his invention. The system could quickly pay for itself, Clark said. “The TV has a way of sucking you in,” he said. “Before you know it, you’ve ordered a few more beers and now you are ordering an appetizer.” The receivers are simple to use. Touch any button and they’ll turn on. They’ll turn themselves off when they are not being used. The Wavrydr can easily be carried around. It fits in a shirt pocket. “You can still be social,” Clark said. “You can still walk around the bar.” The cover on the Wavrydr is transparent so you can see inside. Lights glitter when it’s on. “The receiver charges right through the plastic,” Hintzen explained. “They make no direct electrical connection. That is part of the patent.” Links: www.wavrydr.com
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Bad news for vegetarians...?
A new study by researchers from Harvard suggests that without meat our species might not have evolved with bigger brains. Richard Wrangham of Harvard argues in his new book that the invention of cooking meat led to larger brains and gave us enough free time to develop tools and social skills. Cooking freed humans from having to spend half the day chewing tough raw food — as most of our primate relatives do, Wrangham argues. Cooking also allowed early humans to devote themselves to more productive activities, ultimately allowing the development of tools, agriculture, and social networks, he said.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Student develops superior hydrogen storage method
Determined to play a key role in solving global dependency on fossil fuels, Javad Rafiee, a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has developed a new method for storing hydrogen at room temperature. Rafiee has created a novel form of engineered graphene that exhibits hydrogen storing capacity far exceeding any other known material. This new graphene has exhibited a hydrogen storage capacity of 14 percent by weight at room temperature – far exceeding any other known material. This 14-percent capacity surpasses the U.S. Department of Energy 2015 target of realizing a material with hydrogen storage capacity of 9 percent by weight at room temperature. Rafiee said his graphene is also one of the first known materials to surpass the Department of Energy’s 2010 target of 6 percent. Rafiee’s graphene exhibits three critical attributes that result in its unique hydrogen storage capacity. The first is high surface area. Graphene’s unique structure, only one atom thick, means that each of its carbon atoms is exposed to the environment and, in turn, to the hydrogen gas. The second attribute is low density. Graphene has one of the highest surface area-per-unit masses in nature, far superior to even carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. The third attribute is favorable surface chemistry. After oxidizing graphite powder and mechanically grinding the resulting graphite oxide, Rafiee synthesized the graphene by thermal shock followed by annealing and exposure to argon plasma. These treatments play an important role in increasing the binding energy of hydrogen to the graphene surface at room temperature, as hydrogen tends to cluster and layer around carbon atoms.
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03/04/10 -
Cheap bumwad scare-ads of the late 1920s
This 1928 bumwad advertorial from Scott is part of the toilet-paper maker's sustained attempt to create a global panic over the use of cheap TP by convincing people that if you used the wrong brand, your asshole would fall out and you'd end up in the hospital.
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03/04/10 -
Figure out Toyota's problem: Win $1 million
Nobody knows why Toyota cars are having issues with "unintended acceleration". In fact, there's some evidence that all makes of cars do the same thing at a similar rate—it just looks like more Toyotas because there's more of those on the road. Now, Edmunds.com is making an offer: Recreate the accelerator issues under controlled conditions and prove the cause, and you could win $1 million.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Toyota acceleration problem probably driver fault
What's the real problem behind Toyota's unintended acceleration? Is it simply a sticky pedal, or is the trouble more fundamental? PM senior automotive editor Mike Allen delves into modern car tech, explaining why widespread theories about electrical throttle problems and electromagnetic interference are misguided. All of the affected pedal assemblies were made by Canadian supplier CTS. Toyota's boffins have documented a problem that can make a few of these pedals slow to return, and maybe even stick down. Problem solved. But the media, Congress—and personal-injury lawyers—smell the blood in the water. Not to diminish the injuries and a few deaths attributable to these very real mechanical problems, but they're statistically only a very small blip, which may explain why Toyota took so long to identify the issue, especially when it has symptoms similar to the similarly documented floor mat recall. Plus, sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) is notoriously difficult to diagnose because, more often then not, the problem can't be repeated in front of a mechanic. Let's not forget the Audi SUA episode back in the '80s; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration eventually concluded that there was no mechanical problem. The culprit, as hard as this is to admit, was most likely driver error.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Building high-speed wireless in Afghanistan out of garbage
Volunteers in Afghanistan -- both locals and foreigners from the MIT Bits and Atoms lab -- have been building out a wireless network made largely from locally scrounged junk. They call it "FabFi" and it's kicking ass, especially when compared with the World Bank-funded alternative, which has spent seven years and hundreds of millions of dollars and only managed its first international link last summer. The boys at the Jalalabad Fab Lab came up with their own design to meet the growing demand created by the International Fab surge last September. As usual all surge participants who came from the US, South Africa, Iceland and Englad paid their own way. Somebody needs to sponsor these people. For those of you who are suckers for numbers, the reflector links up just shy of -71dBm at about 1km, giving it a gain of somewhere between 5 and 6dBi. With a little tweaking and a true parabolic shape, it could easily be as powerful as the small FabFi pictured above (which is roughly 8-10dBi depending on materials)
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03/04/10 -
Humidity in kitchen or bathroom can degrade vitamins in a week
The high humidity present in bathrooms and kitchens can degrading the vitamins and health supplements stored in those rooms, even if the lids are on tight, a Purdue University study shows. Crystalline substances like vitamin C, some vitamin B forms and other dietary supplements, are prone to a process called deliquescence in which humidity causes a water-soluble solid to dissolve. Keeping those supplements away from warm, humid environments can help ensure their effectiveness. "In a week you can get complete loss of vitamin C in some products," said Lisa Mauer, an associate professor of food science.
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Russian Teenager Designs Noiseless Electric Rifle
Maxim Kotelnikov, an eighth-grader, designed his weapon after he had seen a TV program about the use of similar rifles in the USA and Korea. It took the boy a year to design the new weapon. He used his friend’s broken game rifle as the basis. The rifle weighs nearly six kilos (6 kilograms = 13.227 pounds); it fires special cartridges that need to be magnetized in advance. “This weapon is unique for it fires noiselessly. There is no shock of discharge and a shot does not produce a flare. No other sniper rifle can do it. I designed my own system, which I called the “Nucleus System,” the boy said. The rifle is based on the principle of accelerating coil. The rifle is powered with electricity only. A bullet gathers speed immediately.
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03/04/10 -
Microsoft Says, Don't Press the F1 Key In XP
"Microsoft has issued a security advisory warning users not to press the F1 key in Windows XP, owing to an unpatched bug in VBScript discovered by Polish researcher Maurycy Prodeus. The security advisory says that the vulnerability relates to the way VBScript interacts with Windows Help files when using Internet Explorer, and could be triggered by a user pressing the F1 key after visiting a malicious Web site using a specially crafted dialog box."
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
The Computer That Can Read Your Mind
"Gtec has showcased a computer that can read your mind over at the CeBIT trade show in Germany. Designed primarily to help those who can't write or speak, the system makes use of a skull cap and wireless technology to transform brain waves into letters. It's the first patient-ready computer-brain interface, according to its Austrian makers. It takes around 30 seconds per letter for the computer to recognise what you're saying the first time you use it, according to Gtec, but this improves vastly with practice. '"One second per letter is very tough," Gtec's Engelbert Grunbacher said, adding users can usually easily get to five or 10 letters per minute. "You learn to be relaxed, focused. You improve."' It might look quite wacky (pictures here) and at €9,000 the system is not cheap, but it could help enhance the lives of many people who have a great deal to say but no real way of saying it."
- Full Article Source

03/04/10 -
Using Classical Music As a Form of Social Control
"Classical music is being used increasingly in Great Britain as a tool for social control and a deterrent to bad behavior. One school district subjects badly behaving children to hours of Mozart in special detention. Unsurprisingly, some of these youth now find classical music unbearable. Recorded classical music is blared through speakers at bus stops, outside stores, train stations and elsewhere to drive away loitering youth. Apparently it works. Detentions are down, graffiti is reduced, and naughty youth flee because they find classical music repugnant."
- Full Article Source

03/03/10 -
Magnetic Levitation video
Sure, its all tethered, but its still pretty cool. Must be something interesting and/or useful we could do with this, if not just as a cool toy or demo.
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03/03/10 -
Timelapse of a City growing and dying
Rob Carter's stop-motion paper animation film, Metropolis, moves like a pop-up book on speed. The nine-minute film chronicles the urban expansion of Charlotte, North Carolina, with graphics that burst forward, putting the city's evolution into perspective.
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03/03/10 -
SNL 'Presidents' Reunite For Video Pushing Wall Street Reform
In the video, the fake presidents approach Obama in a dream as he contemplates the multimillion dollar lobbying campaign banks are waging against the CFPA.Banks and Senate Republicans argue that banking regulators must have authority to veto consumer protections created by the CFPA in order to protect the "safety and soundness" of the financial sector. Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), a champion of the CFPA in the House, told HuffPost that he finds it strange that a bank would argue that it could only manage to stay solvent if it was allowed to engage in abusive and deceptive practices. "I don't find that particularly persuasive," he said. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told HuffPost Tuesday the proposal is "crazy." The Fed already has consumer protection authority but has elected not to use it. Frank said that such a proposal would be a non-starter with the House. "For months, the Big Banks and their army of high priced lobbyists have been swarming Capitol Hill looking to either kill or weaken real reform -- including a strong and independent agency focused on standing up for consumers," said Americans for Financial Reform chief Heather Booth in a statement. "We are thrilled the folks at Funny or Die, and their friends in Hollywood, are joining this fight." AFR is launching a week of action, encouraging people to call Senate offices and urge them to get behind an independent CFPA, in coordination with the video.
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03/02/10 -
Dark matter could meet its nemesis on Earth
A SPINNING disc may be all that is needed to overturn Newton's second law of motion - and potentially remove the need for dark matter. The second law states that a force is proportional to an object's mass and its acceleration. But since the 1980s, some physicists have eyed the law with suspicion, arguing that subtle changes to it at extremely small accelerations could explain the observed motion of stars in galaxies. Stars move at speeds that suggest that galaxies have far more mass than is visible, which astronomers attribute to dark matter. But if Newton's second law could be modified ever so slightly, it would obviate the need for dark matter. De Lorenci's team has figured out that a spinning disc can reproduce the effect any time and anywhere on Earth. Their calculations show that if the disc is positioned accurately and its speed precisely controlled, the acceleration at specific points on the disc's rim would cancel out the accelerations produced by the motion of the Earth and the sun. If the second law is correct at all accelerations, a measuring device mounted on the rim should register no anomalous force at these points. However, if MOND is correct, the device should feel an aberrant kick. "We are able to control the conditions to produce the MOND regime in any place at any time," says De Lorenci. However, the experiment can only test a version of MOND that says that all forces act differently at tiny accelerations. Another version postulates that just gravity would be affected, and this can only be tested in space.
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03/02/10 -
The sweet smell of morality
Can a clean smell make you a better person? That’s the provocative suggestion of a recent study in the journal Psychological Science. A team of researchers found that when people were in a room recently spritzed with a citrus-scented cleanser, they behaved more fairly when playing a classic trust game. In another experiment, the smell of cleanser made subjects more likely to volunteer for a charity. The findings suggest that simply smelling something clean makes people clean up their behavior - that a smell can provoke a mental leap between cleanliness and morality, making people think differently about the world around them. The authors even suggested that clean smells could be employed as a tool to influence how people act.
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03/02/10 -
Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy
Altruism is something of a novelty these days, and most people have little time to partake. But altruism is the whole idea behind the new charity, called the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy. It's the brainchild of Courtney Martin, a South of Market writer who dreamed up the idea four years ago in New York and has handed out a stack of her own $100 bills every year to select good-deed doers who agree to dream up unusual ways to use the dough.
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03/02/10 -
Visiting Aliens will probably be nanobased robots
Reality is that any alien race out there with whom we have any kind of physical contact at all is virtually certain to have (a) full-fledged nanotech, and (b) hyperhuman AI. Given these capabilities, if they want to find Earth-like planets anywhere in the area of space they would have the physical capability of travelling to, they will find them. Period. Doesn’t matter whether we are standing on the shore waving or not. Of course, that assumes they are interested in Earth-like planets in the first place. Most commentators on the subject seem to be stuck in E. E. Smith’s universe, worrying about whether the aliens who notice us will be the (kindly, academic) Norlaminians or the (evil, rapacious) Fenachrone. The aliens, wearing bodies like ours (or at least some form of animal life) will have spaceships and spacesuits and takeoff and land on planets and basically act like people on ocean-going boats.
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KeelyNet BBS Files w/bonus PDF of 'Keely and his Discoveries'
Finally, I've gotten around to compiling all the files (almost 1,000 - about 20MB and lots of work doing it) from the original KeelyNet BBS into a form you can easily navigate and read using your browser, ideally Firefox but it does work with IE. Most of these files are extremely targeted, interesting and informative, I had forgotten just how much but now you can have the complete organized, categorized set, not just sprinklings from around the web. They will keep you reading for weeks if not longer and give you clues and insights into many subjects and new ideas for investigation and research. IN ADDITION, I am including as a bonus gift, the book (in PDF form) that started it all for me, 'Keely and his Discoveries - Aerial Navigation' which includes the analysis of Keely's discoveries by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton. This 407 page eBook alone is worth the price of the KeelyNet BBS CD but it will give you some degree of understanding about what all Keely accomplished which is just now being rediscovered, but of course, without recognizing Keely as the original discoverer. Chapters include; Vibratory Sympathetic and Polar Flows, Vibratory Physics, Latent Force in Interstitial Spaces and much more. To give some idea of how Keely's discoveries are being slowly rediscovered in modern times, check out this Keely History. These two excellent bodies of information will be sent to you on CD. If alternative science intrigues and fascinates you, this CD is what you've been looking for... - Full Article Source

03/02/10 -
New California law to raise minimum for consumer solar power buy back
Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign legislation that will make it possible for more Californians to sell the electricity they produce back to their utilities at retail prices. The legislation, written by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), doubles to 5% the overall amount of energy that California's investor-owned utilities must buy back. Previously, state law required electric companies to sign so-called net-metering contracts for up to only 2.5% of their load. Solar advocates said the net-metering boost would allow consumers to recoup their investment faster, which is critical to California's goal of installing a million rooftop arrays by 2017. Some 50,000 California homes benefit from net-metering today, a number that would need to grow rapidly if the state is to reach its goal of obtaining 3,000 megawatts from rooftop solar.
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03/02/10 -
Google's New Mirror Technology to Cut Costs for Solar Development?
According to reports at CNBC, Google’s Bill Weihl said that, if all goes well with testing, the product could potentially be ready in three years. What makes the product so unique is its unusual material makeup which allows the sun to reflect off a surface, causing it to heat, thus producing steam to run the turbine. With Google’s new invention, the mirror focuses the sun’s rays on the heated substance. This rumor comes around a time when the Internet mogul has been investing in companies in the renewable energy market, while also doing its own research part in efforts to be more progressive in the movement. And with this mirror technology, Google’s plans are to cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun. "There is a decent chance that in a small number of years, we could have a 2-X reduction in cost," Weihl said.
- Full Article Source

03/02/10 -
New material traps radioactive waste like a Venus flytrap
Venus flytraps are notoriously picky eaters. Drop a pebble into their open jaws and they won't bite, but when a fly enters they instinctively know to snap shut immediately. Now scientists have invented a chemical material which acts in a similar fashion, though unlike the carnivorous plant, its favorite food is radioactive waste. Before the invention of this material, sorting out deadly isotopes from harmless ions in waste proved to be an arduous and inefficient process. The new material works because its crystalline structure is specially designed to bond in a different way with cesium than with sodium, trapping the former but releasing the latter. Since cesium ions don't bond as well as sodium ions with water molecules, only the sodium ions manage to pull through the material when it is dipped in a solution to prompt ion exchange. Cesium, on the other hand, actually binds to sulfur atoms embedded in the rings of the material's framework, causing a hole to seal shut around it. "As far as we know, this Venus-flytrap process is unique," Kanatzidis said. "It also works over a large range of acidities—an essential property for cleanup at different sites around the world, where pH can range considerably."
- Full Article Source

03/02/10 -
Self-ejecting plugs are here
A student at the Rhode Island School of Design has come upon an ingenious solution to a major energy problem -- phantom power. The charging of devices like cell phones, cameras and laptops is increasing the amount of energy consumed in the U.S. These devices continue to draw energy even after they have been fully charged. Conor Klein, a RISDE student, was inspired by the physiology of the leech which ejects itself from its host when it becomes full of blood. The device is called the Outlet Regulator and it uses "...a timer circuit and electromagnetics" to trigger the plug release thereby guaranteeing that energy is not being wasted overcharging devices.
- Full Article Source

03/02/10 -
Birds have built in magnetometer?
Specialized iron compounds in the dendrites locally amplify the Earth magnetic field and thus induce a primary receptor potential. Most probably each of these more than 500 dendrites encodes only one direction of the magnetic field. These manifold data are processed to the brain of the bird and here - recomposed - serve as a basis for a magnetic map, which facilitates the spatial orientation. Whether this magnetic map is consulted, strongly depends on the avian species and its current motivation to do so: migratory birds, for example, show magnetic orientation only during their migratory restlessness, as could be shown in multiple behavioural experiments by Prof. Wolfgang Wiltschko, who has discovered magnetic field guided navigation in birds. The cooperation with his research team has suggested that magnetic compass and magnetic map sense are based on different mechanisms and are localized at different sites: The magnetic compass resides in the eye, the magnetometer for the magnetic map lies in the beak.
- Full Article Source

03/02/10 -
Cyberwar hype cooked up to sell Internet-breaking garbage to the military
For years, McConnell has wanted the NSA (the ultra-secretive government spy agency responsible for listening in on other countries and for defending classified government computer systems) to take the lead in guarding all government and private networks. Not surprisingly, the contractor he works for has massive, secret contracts with the NSA in that very area. In fact, the company, owned by the shadowy Carlyle Group, is reported to pull in $5 billion a year in government contracts, many of them Top Secret. Now the problem with developing cyberweapons -- say a virus, or a massive botnet for denial-of-service attacks, is that you need to know where to point them. In the Cold War, it wasn't that hard. In theory, you'd use radar to figure out where a nuclear attack was coming from and then you'd shoot your missiles in that general direction. But online, it's extremely difficult to tell if an attack traced to a server in China was launched by someone Chinese, or whether it was actually a teenager in Iowa who used a proxy. That's why McConnell and others want to change the internet. The military needs targets.
- Full Article Source

03/02/10 -
Memory Problems? Try Magnesium
New research from Tel Aviv University suggests that magnesium, a key nutrient for the functioning of memory, may be even more critical than previously thought. The research, lead by Dr. Inna Slutsky, focused on a new magnesium supplement, magnesium-L-theronate (MgT), that effectively crosses the blood-brain barrier to inhibit calcium flux in brain neurons. The new study found that the synthetic magnesium compound works on both young and aging animals to enhance memory or prevent its impairment. The research was carried out over a five-year period and has significant implications for the use of over-the-counter magnesium supplements.
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03/02/10 -
Thorium most practical way to achieve Energy Independence
Thorium is a readily available & much safer, lower waste product nuclear fuel. Thorium's capacity as nuclear fuel was discovered during WW II, but ignored because it was unsuitable for making bombs. A liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) is the optimal approach for harvesting energy from Thorium, and has the potential to solve today's energy/climate crisis. In fact, it is probably the only practical way to do. This 16 minute video summarizes 197 minutes worth of Google Tech Talks on the subject of Thorium & LFTR.
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03/02/10 -
Islamic terror web sites urge followers to attack the economic system
Jihadist terror organizations have set economic terrorism as their new target, intending to harm and paralyze Western economies, the United Sates in particular, claims Prof. Gabriel Weimann, expert researcher on terrorism over the Internet at the University of Haifa. Prof. Weimann monitored websites hosted by terrorist and terrorism-supporting organizations and concludes: 'For the Jihadists, the present economic crisis signifies an ideal opportunity and platform to leverage an economic terrorist campaign.'
- Full Article Source

03/02/10 -
'Biological clock' could be a key to better health, longer life
If you aren't getting a good, consistent and regular night's sleep, a new study suggests it could reduce your ability to handle oxidative stress, cause impacts to your health, increase motor and neurological deterioration, speed aging and ultimately cut short your life. That is, if your "biological clock" genes work the same way as those of a fruit fly. And they probably do. The study concluded that expression of the "period" gene naturally declines with age. If the same is true for humans, that could help explain why people may lose some of their ability to handle oxidative and other stresses at a time of their life when they need it most. The scientists theorized that the "period" gene is regulating pathways involved in removal of oxidative damage, and those without this function experienced the symptoms of aging more quickly. This could ultimately have impacts on everything from neurological damage to heart disease and cancer. "What's worth noting, of course, is that every animal species, unless they are in a protected laboratory, experiences stressful events," Krishnan said. "That's part of a normal life. The metabolic challenge we presented to these fruit flies was only a moderate stress. But even so, it appeared to later cause motor and neuronal degeneration and an earlier death in the mutant flies, due to faster buildup of cellular damage." Further research will explore ways in which biological clocks might be "re-vitalized."
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03/02/10 -
Solid State Electrolyte to Triple Lithium Battery power at half the cost
AMPAC scientists independently confirmed that Planar Energy’s new generation of solid state electrolytes have ionic conductivity metrics comparable to liquid electrolytes used in traditional chemical batteries. It will allow solid state battery fabrication that will enable manufacturers to increase their capacity by 200-to-300 percent, while reducing costs more than 50 percent. - This is what the automotive industry needs to make electric vehicles practical and affordable..
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03/02/10 -
Open Gov Tracker Reveals Best US Open Government Ideas
"In May of 2009, the White House launched an Ideascale site to gather ideas from citizens to identify ways to 'strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.' The digital letdown was when many of the top ideas generated by the process were to legalize marijuana, solve tax issues and to reinvestigate Obama's birth origins. Fast forward to February 6 and the same process has been repeated with individual federal agencies as the subject. This time the idea generation has been much more productive, with ideas such as establishing clear benchmarks on humanitarian progress in Sudan to the State Department, funding for open source text books and materials to the Department of Education, making it easier to access previously FOIAed documents to the Department of Justice, and creating a Wiki for NASA to share its data and to engage the public. Hackers from NASA's Nebula cloud computing platform have created a site that aggregates 23 of these idea sites to give a quick peek into the best rated contributions in each category. Programmed in Python and using the MongoDB and Tornado web server, the Open Gov Tracker was highlighted by the open government blog Govfresh this past week as well. Jessy Cowan-Sharp, one of the creators, explained their motivation: 'We thought that a single access point would give a sense of the participation on all the different sites, a window into the discussions happening, build some excitement, and inspire people to participate.' The process closes on March 19th, so go and visit the site to contribute your ideas and vote!"
- Full Article Source

03/02/10 -
"Patent Markings" Lawsuits Could Run Into the Trillions
"The latest legal bugaboo facing manufacturers is the false patent marking suit. Using what has been until recently an obscure type of legal action, individuals and enterprising law firms have targeted large manufacturers with lawsuits that can easily run million of dollars — in a case involving a drink cup manufacturer, over $10 trillion — for incorrectly including patent numbers on products. Some companies named in such suits are 3M, Cisco, Pfizer, Monster Cable, and Merck. Even expired patent numbers can be actionable."
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03/02/10 -
Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earth's Day
"Days on Earth just got shorter. The recent earthquake in Chile shifted the planet's axis by about 8 cm and shortened days by 1.26 microseconds 'The changes can be modeled, though they're difficult to detect physically given their small size... Some changes may be more obvious, and islands may have shifted... Santa Maria Island off the coast near Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, may have been raised 2 meters (6 feet) as a result of the latest quake...'"
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DVD - the Physics of Crystals, Pyramids and Tetrahedrons
This is a wonderful 2 hour DVD which presents one man's lifelong study of pyramids, crystals and their effects. Several of his original and very creative experiments are explained and diagramed out for experimenters. These experiments include; 1) transmutation of zinc to lower elements using a tetrahedron, 2) energy extraction from a pyramid, 3) determining mathematic ratios of nature in a simple experiment, 4) accelerating the growth of food, 5) increasing the abundance of food, 6) how crystals amplify, focus and defocus energy, 7) using crystals to assist natural healing, 8) how the universe uses spirals and vortexes to produce free energy and MORE... - $20 DVD + S&H / Source to Buy and Youtube Clip

KeelyNet BBS Files w/bonus PDF of 'Keely and his Discoveries'
Finally, I've gotten around to compiling all the files (almost 1,000 - about 20MB and lots of work doing it) from the original KeelyNet BBS into a form you can easily navigate and read using your browser, ideally Firefox but it does work with IE. Most of these files are extremely targeted, interesting and informative, I had forgotten just how much but now you can have the complete organized, categorized set, not just sprinklings from around the web. They will keep you reading for weeks if not longer and give you clues and insights into many subjects and new ideas for investigation and research. IN ADDITION, I am including as a bonus gift, the book (in PDF form) that started it all for me, 'Keely and his Discoveries - Aerial Navigation' which includes the analysis of Keely's discoveries by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton. This 407 page eBook alone is worth the price of the KeelyNet BBS CD but it will give you some degree of understanding about what all Keely accomplished which is just now being rediscovered, but of course, without recognizing Keely as the original discoverer. Chapters include; Vibratory Sympathetic and Polar Flows, Vibratory Physics, Latent Force in Interstitial Spaces and much more. To give some idea of how Keely's discoveries are being slowly rediscovered in modern times, check out this Keely History. These two excellent bodies of information will be sent to you on CD. If alternative science intrigues and fascinates you, this CD is what you've been looking for... - Full Article Source

'The Evolution of Matter' and 'The Evolution of Forces' on CD
Years ago, I had been told by several people, that the US government frequently removes books they deem dangerous or 'sensitive' from libraries. Some are replaced with sections removed or rewritten so as to 'contain' information that should not be available to the public despite the authors intent. A key example was during the Manhattan Project when the US was trying to finalize research into atomic bombs. They removed any books that dealt with the subject and two of them were by Dr. Gustave Le Bon since they dealt with both energy and matter including radioactivity. I had been looking for these two books for many years and fortunately stumbled across two copies for which I paid about $40.00 each. I couldn't put down the books once I started reading them. Such a wealth of original discoveries, many not known or remembered today. / Page 88 - Without the ether there could be neither gravity, nor light, nor electricity, nor heat, nor anything, in a word, of which we have knowledge. The universe would be silent and dead, or would reveal itself in a form which we cannot even foresee. If one could construct a glass chamber from which the ether were to be entirely eliminated, heat and light could not pass through it. It would be absolutely dark, and probably gravitation would no longer act on the bodies within it. They would then have lost their weight. / Page 96-97 - A material vortex may be formed by any fluid, liquid or gaseous, turning round an axis, and by the fact of its rotation it describes spirals. The study of these vortices has been the object of important researches by different scholars, notably by Bjerkness and Weyher. They have shown that by them can be produced all the attractions and repulsions recognized in electricity, the deviations of the magnetic needle by currents, etc. These vortices are produced by the rapid rotation of a central rod furnished with pallets, or, more simply, of a sphere. Round this sphere gaseous currents are established, dissymetrical with regard to its equatorial plane, and the result is the attraction or repulsion of bodies brought near to it, according to the position given to them. It is even possible, as Weyher has proved, to compel these bodies to turn round the sphere as do the satellites of a planet without touching it. / Page 149 - "The problem of sending a pencil of parallel Hertzian waves to a distance possesses more than a theoretical interest. It is allowable to say that its solution would change the course of our civilization by rendering war impossible. The first physicist who realizes this discovery will be able to avail himself of the presence of an enemy's ironclads gathered together in a harbour to blow them up in a few minutes, from a distance of several kilometres, simply by directing on them a sheaf of electric radiations. On reaching the metal wires with which these vessels are nowadays honeycombed, this will excite an atmosphere of sparks which will at once explode the shells and torpedoes stored in their holds. With the same reflector, giving a pencil of parallel radiations, it would not be much more difficult to cause the explosion of the stores of powder and shells contained in a fortress, or in the artillery sparks of an army corps, and finally the metal cartridges of the soldiers. Science, which at first rendered wars so deadly, would then at length have rendered them impossible, and the relations between nations would have to be established on new bases."
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High Voltage & Free Energy Devices Handbook
This wonderfully informative ebook provides many simple experiments you can do, including hydrogen generation and electrostatic repulsion as well as the keys to EV Gray's Fuelless Engine. One of the most comprehensive compilations of information yet detailing the effects of high voltage repulsion as a driving force. Ed Gray's engine produced in excess of 300HP and he claimed to be able to 'split the positive' energy of electricity to produce a self-running motor/generator for use as an engine. Schematics and tons of photos of the original machines and more! Excellent gift for your technical friends or for that budding scientist! If you are an experimenter or know someone who investigates such matters, this would make an excellent addition to your library or as an unforgettable gift. The downloadable HVFE eBook pdf file is almost 11MB in size and contains many experiments, photos, diagrams and technical details. Buy a copy and learn all about hydrogen generation, its uses and how to produce electrostatic repulsion. - 121 pages - $15.00
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Hypnosis CD - 3 eBooks with How To Techniques and Many Cases
If you have a few minutes, you might want to read my page on hypnosis and all the amazing things associated with its application. Included is an experience I had when I hypnotized a neighbor kid when I was about 14. As well the hypnotic gaze of snakes, the discovery of 'eyebeams' which can be detected electronically, the Italian Hypnotist Robber who was caught on tape with his eyes glowing as cashiers handed over their money and remembered nothing, glamour and clouding the mind of others, several methods of trance induction and many odd cases, animal catatonia, healing, psychic phenomena, party/stage stunts, including my favorite of negative hallucination where you make your subject NOT see something...much more...if nothing else, its might be a hoot to read.
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14 Ways to Save Money on Fuel Costs
This eBook is the result of years of research into various methods to increase mileage, reduce pollution and most importantly, reduce overall fuel costs. It starts out with the simplest methods and offers progressively more detailed technologies that have been shown to reduce fuel costs. As a bonus to readers, I have salted the pages with free interesting BONUS items that correlate to the relevant page. Just filling up with one tank of gas using this or other methods explained here will pay for this eBook. Of course, many more methods are out there but I provided only the ones which I think are practical and can be studied by the average person who is looking for a way to immediately reduce their fuel costs. I am currently using two of the easier methods in my own vehicle which normally gets 18-22 mpg and now gets between 28 and 32 mpg depending on driving conditions. A tank of gas for my 1996 Ford Ranger costs about $45.00 here so I am saving around $15-$20 PER TANK, without hurting my engine and with 'greener' emissions due to a cleaner burn! The techniques provided in this ebook begin with simple things you can do NOW to improve your mileage and lower your gas costs. - $15 eBook Download / Full Article Source to Buy

New Vanguard Sciences eBooks - Save a Tree! eBooks make great gifts!
Shape Power - Dan Davidson's analysis of the mysterious pyramid energies, Keely's aether force, Reich's orgone energy, Schauberger's diamagnetic energy, plus a host of others, and shows how shape and materials interact with the universal aether to modify the aether into electromagnetic, gravitic, and various healing energies... - Shape Power Youtube

The Physics of the Primary State of Matter - published in the 1930s, Karl Schappeller described his Prime Mover, a 10-inch steel sphere with quarter-inch copper tubing coils. These were filled with a material not named specifically, but which is said to have hardened under the influence of direct current and a magnetic field [electro-rheological fluid]. With such polarization, it might be guessed to act like a dielectric capacitor and as a diode...

$5 Alt Science MP3s to listen while working/driving/jogging
No time to sit back and watch videos? Here are 15 interesting presentations you can download for just $5 each and listen to while driving, working, jogging, etc. An easy way to learn some fascinating new things that you will find of use. Easy, cheap and simple, better than eBooks or Videos. Roughly 50MB per MP3.
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15 New Alternative Science DVDs & 15 MP3s
An assortment of alternative science videos that provide many insights and inside information from various experimenters. Also MP3s extracted from these DVDs that you can listen to while working or driving. Reference links for these lectures and workshops by Bill Beaty of Amateur Science on the Dark Side of Amateur Science, Peter Lindemann on the World of Free Energy, Norman Wootan on the History of the EV Gray motor, Dan Davidson on Shape Power and Gravity Wave Phenomena, Lee Crock on a Method for Stimulating Energy, Doug Konzen on the Konzen Pulse Motor, George Wiseman on the Water Torch and Jerry Decker on Aether, ZPE and Dielectric Nano Arrays. Your purchase of these products helps support KeelyNet, thanks!

"The potential for mischief varies inversely with one's proximity to the authority figure."

Ellen Glasgow

"The only difference between
a rut and a grave...is the depth."

Grebennikov(click here)

Cree Indian Prophecy
Only after the Last Tree has been cut down,
Only after the Last River has been poisoned,
Only after the Last Fish has been caught,
Only then will you find that
Money Cannot Be Eaten.